LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - In exclusive voting by the head coaches in the league, Mary Cardone of Southwestern University has been selected the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Women's Tennis Player-of-the-Year. In that same balloting, Cardone was also named SCAC Newcomer-of-the-Year. Complete Release
Austin College's Ryan Dodd and Trinity University's Gretchen Rush split the vote to share SCAC Women's Coach-of-the-Year of the honors.
Cardone, a freshman from San Antonio, Texas, posted a perfect 20-0 singles record this year for the Pirates while splitting time at #1 and #2 singles. She is currently ranked 15th in the West Region for Singles and sixth for Doubles and has posted wins over players from #16 Trinity, UT-Tyler, #25 Linfield, Swarthmore and #40 Cal Lutheran. Cardone, a three-time SCAC Player-of-the-Week selection during the regular season, has been the catalyst behind the Pirates' 20-3 record this spring, which currently has the team ranked 28th in the nation.
Cardone is the first Southwestern tennis player, man or woman, to earn SCAC Player-of-the-Year honors. She follows her teammate Taite Drew-Jones in earning the program its second consecutive Newcomer-of-the-Year honor. In addition, after winning Newcomer-of-the-Year in women's soccer earlier this academic year, she is the first SCAC student-athlete to win major awards in two different sports since Vanessa Moreno of Trinity was named the league's Cross Country Runner-of-the-Year and Track Athlete-of-the-Year in 2012-13.
In the Player-of-the-Year voting, Cardone received five first-place votes while Liza Southwick and Caroline Kutach – both of Trinity – each received one first-place vote.
In the Newcomer-of-the-Year balloting, Cardone was selected as the top choice on six ballots while Anna Sergiovanni of Austin College received the remaining first-place vote.
In his third season at the helm, Dodd led Austin College to the SCAC third-place match where the 'Roos defeated Colorado College, 5-3, to earn the program it's highest-ever finish at the conference's season-ending event. The team finished with an 11-10 mark and achieved its first regional ranking (the 'Roos have been 17th the last three rankings) since the 2011 season.
Also in her third season, Rush has led Trinity to the NCAA Tournament each of her three seasons, including this year's squad which earned the SCAC automatic berth after a 5-0 victory over Southwestern in the conference tournament final. The 16th-ranked Tigers enter the NCAA championships on a seven match win streak and are 17-7 overall. Trinity has won the SCAC title each of Rush's three seasons back at her alma mater and the 2017 conference title was the 21st for the program.
Dodd and Rush each received three first-place votes in the Coach-of-the-Year balloting. Billy Porter of Southwestern received the remaining first-place vote.
To view the entire All-SCAC Women's Tennis team, click here.
