Bruins tennis teams earn ITA Academic honors

It’s been an odd end to the 2019-20 academic and athletic year. That’s putting it nicely.

Still, the resolve and efforts put in from the student-athletes across the country that saw their spring seasons shortened or cancelled, can only be described with positive terms, like resilient.

The hard work put in on the court, in the arena or on the fields was only half the time and effort that these student-athletes had to also put into the classroom. And as such, those worthy and in such great academic standing were honored this past week.

The UCLA Bruins women’s and men’s tennis teams each took home multiple honors from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. The women’s team was named an ITA All-Academic Team for the third consecutive season, as they carried all the criterion needed (3.20 team GPA, eligibility of all varsity letterers).

The women’s team also had nine different student-athletes named Scholar-Athletes as Jada Hart, Abi Altick, Sophie Bendetti, Annette Goulak, Elysia Bolton, Taylor Johnson, Abbey Forbes, Carolina Goldberg and Sasha Vagramov each were honored.

To be honored with such a title, student-athletes must carry a 3.50 GPA or higher and be eligible during the entire academic year as well as a varsity letterer.

The men’s team also collected individual awards, placing seven student-athletes as Scholar-Athletes. Connor Rapp, Connor Hance, Eric Hahn, Govind Nanda, Mathew Tsolakyan, Patrick Zahraj and Blaine Hovenier were each named Scholar-Athletes.

Congratulations to all of the student-athletes who were honored and to the women’s team as a whole for your resiliency through what can be described as unprecedented times during the coronavirus pandemic.