2025-2026 ITA Division I Women's Academic Awards
TEMPE, Ariz. – The UNC Greensboro (UNCG) women's tennis team has been named to the 2025-26 Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) All-Academic Team, while all nine Spartans on the team earned a spot on the ITA Scholar-Athlete list, the association announced Monday.
Sydney Bly, Kayley Bushnell, Sophia Cedeno, Sara Kostic, Ella Olexa, Eliza Perry, Ivet Sala-Sánchez, Sofia Somoano and Lauren Thomson were all named to the 2025-26 ITA Scholar-Athletes list.
To earn a spot on the ITA Scholar-Athlete list, student-athletes must have a grade-point average (GPA) of at least 3.5 (on a 4.00 scale) for the current academic year and be listed on the institutional eligibility form.
To be named an ITA All-Academic Team, the team GPA must be 3.2 or above (on a 4.00 scale), all student-athletes must have been listed on the institutional eligibility form and all varsity letterwinners should be factored into the cumulative team GPA for the current academic year.
1,501 Division I women's student-athletes were named an ITA Scholar-Athlete, and 231 women's tennis programs were awarded the All-Academic Team distinction. The Southern Conference (SoCon), saw a total of 48 student-athletes from the league recognized in total, including UNCG (9), Chattanooga (7), Furman (6), ETSU (6), Wofford (6), Samford (6), Mercer (6) and Western Carolina (2).
About the ITA
Originally founded in 1956 by the legendary UCLA men's tennis coach, J. D. Morgan, the ITA is the governing body of college tennis, overseeing men's and women's varsity tennis at all levels – NCAA Divisions I, II and III, NAIA and Junior/Community College. Officially incorporated in 1978 as the Intercollegiate Tennis Coaches Association (ITCA), for over the past four decades the ITA has worked hard to achieve its charter goals: (1) "To foster and encourage the playing of intercollegiate tennis in accordance with the highest tradition of sportsmanship and consistent with the general objectives of higher education." (2) "To develop among the intercollegiate coaches a deeper sense of responsibility in teaching, promoting, maintaining, and conducting the game of tennis." And, (3) "To educate and serve those individuals and groups who are involved in collegiate tennis: junior and college players, their coaches and parents, and the at-large tennis public."
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