DALLAS —
Mariana Rong and
Andrej Klipa headlined St. Mary's list of postseason award winners in women's and men's tennis.
Rong, a sophomore from Jinan, China, has been named the Heartland Conference Women's Tennis Player of the Year, the league announced Saturday. Klipa, a senior from Belgrade, Serbia, shared the men's Player of the Year honors with James Rogers of St. Edward's, the league also announced.
Rong, a six-time Heartland Player of the Week, led the Lady Rattlers to the Heartland Conference championship with a 20-0 record in singles play this sprin. Klipa, one of four men's Rattlers to earn Player of the Week honors this season, led the team one win away from winning the conference title, falling just short in the championship match.
St. Mary's
Cristina Lopez (Fr., San Antonio) was also named the Heartland Women's Freshman of the Year, while head coach
Lisa Dausin took home Heartland Coach of the Year honors for her work with the women's team.
Lopez becomes just the second player in the history of the women's program to earn Heartland Freshman of the Year honors, while Rong, Klipa and Dausin all are the first in St. Mary's history to win their respective honors.
St. Mary's also placed four players on both the men's and women's All-Heartland Conference teams.
Zachary Nicholson,
Matt Banner and
Jared Fellows joined Klipa on the men's side, while
Felicity Delgado and
Valentine Lambrechts joined Rong and Lopez on the women's side.
St. Mary's University, as a Catholic Marianist University, fosters the formation of people in faith and educates leaders for the common good through community service, integrated liberal arts and professional education, and academic excellence. The University has six athletic national titles: men's basketball (1989–NAIA), baseball (2001–NCAA Div. II), softball (1986–NAIA and 2002–NCAA Div. II) and an individual national champion in men's golf (2006–NCAA Div. II) and a national academic championship in men's golf (2009–NCAA Div. II). St. Mary's also had more than 40 percent of its athletes named to conference, regional and/or national honor rolls this past year. St. Mary's student–athletes graduation rate is 65 percent, higher than the NCAA Division II average of 55 percent. To learn more about St. Mary's, visit www.rattlerathletics.com.
