April 30, 2009

2009 A-10 Women's Tennis All-Conference Team

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - Richmond senior Pamela Duran has been named the Atlantic 10 women's tennis Most Outstanding Performer in voting conducted among the Conference's head coaches following the Atlantic 10 Women's Tennis Championship.

In that same vote, Magdalena Ploch of Massachusetts was named Most Outstanding Rookie Performer and head coaches Mark Wesselink of Richmond and Rhode Island's Sandy Wood were tabbed as Coaches of the Year. Richmond junior Erin Clark was selected as the Student-Athlete of the Year in a separate vote of the Conference's sports information directors.

Duran also won Most Outstanding Performer honors in 2007 and is just the second women's tennis standout to twice earn the award. At first singles and second doubles, she helped lead the Spiders to their sixth league crown at the 2009 Atlantic 10 Women's Tennis Championship, held Apr. 17-19 at the Club 4 Life in Monroeville, Pa.

Duran, who hails from Guayaquil, Ecuador, went undefeated during the Championship with a 1-0 record in singles and 2-0 record in doubles matches. At first singles, she garnered a 6-1, 6-2 victory in the finals over first-team selection Elyse Steiner of Temple. In doubles, Duran teamed with sophomore teammate Isabel Arana in second-flight doubles to earn victories over Saint Louis (8-2), Charlotte (8-5) and Temple (8-1).

Ploch, a native of Ludenscheid, Germany, finished 2-2 at first singles at the A-10 Championship. One of the victories came against second-team selection Zena Williams of Duquesne (6-1, 6-2). She finished the season with a 15-5 singles ledger.

Joining Duran, Ploch and Steiner on the All-Conference first-team are Ana Spivakovsky and Yudeshnee Pillay of Charlotte; Fordham's Dominique Liguori; Nadia Demidenko of George Washington; Erin Clark and Kelly Tidwell of Richmond; Saint Louis' Hailee Elmore; Anastasiia Rukavyschnykova of Temple; and Xavier's Kara Courtney. For Duran, it marks the fourth straight season she has been selected to the first-team.

The All-Conference second-team consists of Charlotte's Koren Fleming; Rachel McGowan, Rebecca Poole and Williams of Duquesne; Jackie Corba of George Washington; Massachusetts' Candynce Boney; Kristen Leikem of Rhode Island; Richmond's Helen Cunningham; Casey Miller of Saint Louis; St. Bonaventure's Manuela Marin-Salcedo; and Jill Ducro and Tiffanie Treece of Xavier.

Clark earns Student-Athlete of the Year honors after finishing the season with a combined 13 victories. The junior from Vienna, Va., was 3-0 in singles during the A-10 Championship, which included a 6-3, 6-0 win in the title match against Temple's Lucie Pazderova. It is the first time she has been named to the Academic All-Conference team.

She is joined on the Academic All-Conference team by Spivakovsky; Maude Lecluyse of Massachusetts; Rhode Island's Grace Hedstrom; and Hailee Elmore of Saint Louis.Wesselink earns his fifth Coach of the Year award for leading the Richmond to its sixth A-10 title in the last eight seasons. The Championship's top seed, Richmond registered wins over Saint Louis (4-0), Charlotte (4-0) and Temple (4-0) en route to capturing the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Wood, in his fifth year at Rhode Island, garners his first A-10 Coach of the Year honor after leading the Rams to a 15-4 overall record, which included a 4-0 victory over St. Bonaventure in the A-10 Championship. URI entered the Championship as the No. 4 seed, its highest in program history.