Ferris State Tennis Programs Honored For Classroom Success By ITA

Big Rapids, Mich. - The Ferris State University men's and women's tennis programs and 10 student-athletes have earned distinction for their success in the classroom as the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) recently announced its 2018 All-Academic Teams and Scholar-Athletes.

Both the Bulldog men's and women's tennis squads earned All-Academic Team status while six female members and four from the men's team garnered Scholar-Athlete recognition.

The Bulldogs' Scholar-Athletes from the women's program included Nika Hein, Silvia Verebes, Teodora Stefanovic, Lauren Lomax, Arien Kissinger and Nicole Stay. Meanwhile, FSU's Steward Sell, Pablo Munoz Baroja, Simon Levy and Daniel Bennett claimed the honor for the men.

Both Ferris State teams are guided by head coach Daniel Hangstefer, who completed his first season at the FSU helm in 2017-18.

The ITA All-Academic Team award is open to any ITA program that has a cumulative team grade point average of 3.20 or above (on a 4.00 scale). All varsity letter winners were factored into the cumulative team GPA for the current academic year (including fall 2016 and spring 2017).

In order to earn ITA Scholar-Athlete status a player must meet the following criteria: 1.) be a varsity letter winner, 2.) have a grade point average of at least 3.50 (on a 4.00 scale) for the current academic year, and 3.) have been enrolled at their present school for at least 2 semesters (including freshman through senior year).

This past season, the Bulldog men's team made their 22nd all-time NCAA Tourney appearance. FSU also won the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) regular-season championship for the fourth-straight year and captured a third consecutive GLIAC Tournament title this past season.

Together, the Bulldog men's and women's tennis programs have combined for a total of 37 GLIAC Championships and made 42 NCAA Tournament appearances in program history.