Date Posted: 4/17/2008

MACON, Ga. – After leading their teams to undefeated conference seasons, juniors Enrique Olivares of ETSU and Anna Novo of USC Upstate took home more hardware Thursday afternoon earning Atlantic Sun Conference Men’s and Women’s Tennis Player of the Year honors, respectively.

Olivares and Novo each ran through the conference slate without a loss in leading their teams to the regular season conference crown. Olivares did not drop a conference match in eight starts, and Novo rolled through all A-Sun competition with a 10-0 mark.

Joining Olivares on the men’s all-conference first team was teammate Sebastian Serrano, who was 5-2 in A-Sun matches. Stetson also notched a pair of first-teamers in senior Marcus Echtler and sophomore Hicham Laalej. Laalej and Olivares were each unanimous selections. Rounding out the A-Sun first-team were Davy Sum (Campbell), Evgeny Slesarev (Gardner-Webb), Jordi Ballester (Jacksonville) and Sandy Franz (USC Upstate).

Sum, a back-to-back Player of the Week recipient added to his hardware as the unanimous Atlantic Sun Freshman of the Year selection, as well as a spot on the All-Freshman team. Teammate Larbi Lamzouri was also among the All-Freshman selections, along with teammates Ervin Garibovic and Ricardo Hernandez (Florida Gulf Coast) and Gokay Celik and Chris Swantenson (Stetson). ETSU’s Sergio Velez and Gardner-Webb’s Andrew Veeder capped off the All-Freshman award recipients.

ETSU’s Yevgeniya Stupak, ranked 96th in the nation, earned her second consecutive First-Team selection, as did teammate Olya Batsula. Jacksonville, the top seed in the A-Sun Tennis Championship set to begin on Friday, also had multiple First-Team honorees with freshman Lina Xu and senior Lena Willi. Three other Florida schools accounted for the remaining First-Team selections as Florida Gulf Coast’s Maria Maggiorini, UNF’s Natalia Sanchez and Valentina Galbarini of Stetson received honors.

First-Team selection Lina Xu joined her male counterpart as both an All-Conference and Freshman of the Year honoree. More than half of the Atlantic Sun institutions appeared on the All-Freshman team, led by two players each from ETSU (Tara Sheets and Andrea Voinea) and Stetson (Megan Jones and Unmati Purshotham). Voinea and Jones both received unanimous selections. Belmont’s Abby Leatherwood, Gardner-Webb’s Rita Gouveia, Kennesaw State’s Ayana Tanaka and USC Upstate’s Emilia Milovanovic capped off the All-Freshman selections.

ETSU’s Yaser Zaatini took home men’s Coach of the Year honors after leading the Bucs through a fifth consecutive unblemished conference campaign, and a regular season that featured ETSU achieve a new program-best national ranking of No. 33. On the women’s side, Stetson head coach Sasha Schmid earned the recognition of her peers following an 8-3 Atlantic Sun campaign. It is the first career Atlantic Sun honor for both coaches.

The Atlantic Sun Conference is a 12-member league committed to Building Winners for Life, with a focus on academic and athletic integrity and a balance between the two for the student-athlete, and maintaining a high level of sportsmanship. Headquartered in Macon, Ga., the A-Sun encompasses six of the top eight media markets in the Southeast. The A-Sun consists of some of the most dynamic private and public institutions in the region: Belmont University, Campbell University, East Tennessee State University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Gardner-Webb University, Jacksonville University, Kennesaw State University, Lipscomb University, Mercer University, University of North Florida, University of South Carolina Upstate and Stetson University.

Related Links:
 • Men's Tennis All-Conference
 • Women's Tennis All-Conference