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BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – Five Eastern Kentucky University tennis players were named to the 2013 All-Ohio Valley Conference team while sophomore
Amandine Faouzi was named the OVC Women’s Tennis Player of the Year as announced by the league office Thursday.
Meanwhile,
Rob Oertel was honored as the OVC Women’s Tennis Coach of the Year for the second consecutive year.
Voting was handled by the conference’s head coaches.
Faouzi went undefeated in conference singles matches this year at the No. 1 spot, winning all 10 contests in straight sets. The native of Mareil Sur Mauldre, France currently leads Eastern with 18 dual match singles victories (18-5).
Faouzi is the sixth Colonel to win OVC Women’s Tennis Player of the Year accolades and second EKU player to win the honor in the last three years.
Two other women’s tennis players earned first team all-conference recognition – sophomore
Kristina Labeja and junior
Saioa Oscoz. Both players went 9-0 in league singles matches with Labeja filling the No. 2 position and Oscoz playing No. 3 singles. Oscoz has won 10 straight matches heading into the OVC tournament.
Under Oertel, the EKU women’s tennis team (17-6, 10-0 OVC) has won 22 straight conference matches dating back to 2011.
On the men’s side, sophomore
Juanjo de la Llera and freshman
Alex Alvaro came away with second team All-OVC honors. Alvaro and de la Llera split time between each other playing No. 2 and No. 3 singles. De la Llera finished 6-3 in conference singles play while Alvaro went 5-4.
Alvaro also became just the second Colonel to come away with the OVC Freshman of the Year award.
Both EKU tennis teams are in action this weekend at the 2013 OVC tennis championships in Paducah, Ky. The third-seeded Colonel men take on No. 6 Morehead State in the quarterfinals Friday at 3 p.m. ET. Meanwhile, as the top seed, the Eastern women will play the winner of No. 4 Eastern Illinois and No. 5 Austin Peay in the semifinal round on Saturday.
The winners of the OVC tournament receive an automatic bid to the 2013 NCAA tournament.