Women's Tennis Sweeps Big Three SEC Awards
Wednesday, April 28, 2010 | Women's Tennis
The University of Florida women's tennis team swept the three top honors handed out by the Southeastern Conference coaches, announced Wednesday by the league office. Lauren Embree (Marco Island, Fla.) was voted the SEC Player of the Year, Allie Will (Boca Raton, Fla.) the SEC Freshman of the Year and Roland Thornqvist the SEC Coach of the Year.
Additionally, senior Marrit Boonstra (Groningen, The Netherlands) was named to the All-SEC First Team and senior Anastasia Revzina (Moscow, Russia) was an All-SEC second-team honoree.
Embree and Will joined Boonstra on the All-SEC First Team, while both earned a spot on the five-member SEC All-Freshman Team.
The quartet helped Florida (24-2) march through the SEC, winning the regular season with an 11-0 record and capturing the league's postseason tournament last week.
Embree is the first freshman in the history of the conference to be named the league's Player of the Year. It is the seventh different time a Gator has collected the league's top player honor. Embree is the second true freshman to start at the No. 1 singles position - where she has played every dual match this year - since 1994. Entering the NCAA Tournament, she sports an overall singles record of 28-5 and a 32-5 doubles record. She is 16-3 in dual match singles action, with all coming at the No. 1 position. She also sports a 19-2 dual match doubles record, including a 9-1 record in SEC matches, all at the No. 2 spot. On the doubles court, Embree is ranked with three different teammates among the nation's top-28 doubles teams.
| Florida's History of Top Individual SEC Awards: SEC Coach of the Year Andy Brandi (1987, '88, '93, '96) Roland Thornqvist (2004, '06, '10) SEC Player of the Year Jill Craybas (1995, '96) Lauren Embree (2010) Alexis Gordon (2004) Jessica Lehnhoff (2002) Divya Merchant (1994) Lisa Raymond (1993) SEC Freshman of the Year Julia Cohen (2008) Lindsay Dawaf (2001) Zerene Reyes (2002) Allie Will (2010) |
“This is honestly a huge accomplishment and I'm so honored that the coaches in the SEC thought enough of me,” Embree said. “I had no idea that a freshman has never won this award so it makes even more surprising. I'm so thankful and so honored with this award. It's amazing. My game has improved a lot because of our coaches, Roland (Thornqvist, head coach) and Dave (Balogh, associate head coach). I've been trying to work on things that haven't been my strengths and that's helped me get better every day, too.”
Will was a four-time recipient of the SEC Freshman of the Week award, as she steam-rolled through the dual match season with a 23-0 record, including a 10-0 spot against league foes. Will, who anchors the No. 2 spot in the lineup, enters the NCAA Tournament sporting a team-best 43-3 overall singles record, as well as a 32-5 doubles mark that is tied with Lauren Embree for the best on the squad. Will is the third different Gator to receive the SEC Freshman of the Year accolade.
For only the third time in program history, the Gators kicked off a dual match season with freshmen in both the No. 1 and No. 2 singles positions, as Embree and Will joined Anouschka Popp and Divya Merchant (1993-94) and Joyce Portman and Sheryl Maskell (1976-77) as the only UF women's tennis players to do so.
“That's huge, for Allie to be the Freshman of the Year and me being Player of the Year,” Embree shared. “Even having Ro (Roland Thornqvist) as the coach of the year – all of this is amazing. For Allie and I, it's so special to be awarded something so big together. It's a pretty good accomplishment for the both of us.”
Thornqvist, who also was voted the SEC Coach of the Year in 2004 and 2006, guided the third-ranked Gators to their sixth SEC regular-season title in his nine years at UF, while capturing the SEC Tournament championship for a sixth time during his tenure. He enters the NCAA Tournament with a 288-78 overall 14-year head coach record, as well as a 213-28 mark with the Gators.
Boonstra earned a spot on the All-SEC First Team for a second consecutive year. She has won 14 straight singles matches, the last three victories coming in the SEC Tournament, as she was named SEC Tournament Most Valuable Performer. Boonstra is 23-3 in singles this year, including a 21-1 dual match record, with the majority of action coming at the No. 3 position.
Revzina's spot on the All-SEC Second Team means the Gator senior will have earned either first or second team honors each of her four years. Revzina has compiled a 94-26 career singles record and a 92-23 mark on the doubles court, with a 19-2 dual match record this year.
Rounding out the top individual awards was Vanderbilt's Catherine Newman, who was named SEC Women's Tennis Scholar-Athlete of the Year for her outstanding work in the classroom.
There was a tie on second team, so a 13-member second team was chosen.
A complete list of the 2010 SEC Awards:
Coach of the Year: Roland Thornqvist, Florida
Player of the Year: Lauren Embree, Florida
Freshman of the Year: Allie Will, Florida
Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Catherine Newman, Vanderbilt
All-SEC First Team
Anouk Tigu, Arkansas
Fani Chifchieva, Auburn
Marrit Boonstra, Florida
Allie Will, Florida
Lauren Embree, Florida
Chelsey Gullickson, Georgia
Nadja Gilchrist, Georgia
Kristi Boxx, Ole Miss
Connor Vogel, Ole Miss
Ana Marija Zubori, South Carolina
Caitlin Whoriskey, Tennessee
Catherine Newman, Vanderbilt
All-SEC Second Team
Alexa Gurachi, Alabama
Courtney McClane, Alabama
Dijana Stojic, South Carolina
Anastsia Revzina, Florida
Yvette Hyndman, Georgia
Christine Johnson, Kentucky
Keri Frankenberger, LSU
Karen Nijssen, Ole Miss
Laura van de Stroet, Ole Miss
Rosalia Alda, Tennessee
Maria Sorbello, Tennessee
Zsofia Zubor, Tennessee
Chelsea Preeg, Vanderbilt
All-Freshman Team
Lauren Embree, Florida
Allie Will, Florida
Kelsey Sundaram, Arkansas
Keri Frankenberger, LSU
Alexa Guarachi, Alabama
-UF-
