FRISCO, Texas - Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi junior
Kyohei Yamanaka has been named the Southland Men's Tennis Student-Athlete of the Year, in a
press release from the conference office on Thursday. Yamanaka earned first team honors for the second-straight season. He was joined by
Thomas Rodrigues Lopes on the All-Academic First Team. Senior
William Mottet was named to the Southland All-Academic Second Team for the second year in a row.
Yamanaka was in the midst of an outstanding junior campaign. He was undefeated in singles play at 12-0 during the spring, playing in combination at the No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 positions. He also picked up seven victories in doubles play during the spring. Yamanaka won the A Draw singles consolation bracket at the Contender CrossFit islander Open during the fall.
Rodrigues Lopes is on track to graduate from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi this May with his degree in Finance. He earned a 3.54 GPA while going 9-3 in singles on the season. He was a perfect 6-0 at the No. 3 singles position during the spring. He also picked up six wins in doubles. During the fall, Mottet took second at the ITA Texas Regional.
Mottet had a 3.56 cumulative GPA while majoring in Kinesiology. He is on pace to graduate this May. Playing primarily at the No. 1 position, Mottet picked up four wins in the shortened spring season and also went 6-4 in doubles play. During the fall, the senior competed at the ITA Oracle Championships in Malibu and also competed in the ITA Texas Regional.
The All-Academic teams are voted on by a head coach, sports information director and academic/compliance staff member from each Southland Conference institution. Student-athletes must possess a 3.0 cumulative GPA, have completed one full academic year at the nominating institution and participated in at least 50 percent of the team's competition to qualify for All-Academic selection. Nominees who were also named to the All-Conference First Team or CoSIDA Academic All-District team are automatically named Southland All-Academic.
The Southland Conference awards committee, which consists of one administrator from each of the 13 member schools, votes for the student-athlete of the year. The Southland student-athlete of the year award is presented to one student-athlete who achieves excellence in both academics and athletics. All nominees must have earned at least a 3.2 GPA on a 4.0 scale, and demonstrated athletics achievement for at least two years at the nominating institution.
As a program, the Islanders have reached 11 NCAA Tournaments in program history and captured 23 Southland titles in the last 13 years. The men are seeking the program's ninth NCAA Tournament appearance. The women have won three of the past four Southland Conference regular season titles.
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