CSU Women's Tennis Team Wins Awards
By CSU Sports Information
FLORENCE, S.C. - The Lady Cougars made it another banner night on Thursday, as the Columbus State University women's tennis team got their hands full of awards at the Peach Belt Conference pre-championship banquet at Francis Marion.
Columbus State grabbed the Player of the Year award for the second consecutive season, this time going to Marleen Tilgner with head coach Evan Isaacs winning the Coach of the Year award for the the third consecutive season.
Tilgner,Beatriz Lopez,Candice Paya and Luise Sachs each picked up All-Conference honors in singles play. Meanwhile,Noa Davico and Sachs along with Paya and Natalia Kattah Paz garnered honors on the doubles side.
Tilgner becomes the third Lady Cougar to take home Player of the Year honors along with Paola Cigui and her current teammate Lopez. Tilgner went 16-3 in singles play with a majority of her matches taking place at the top spot, The sophomore went a perfect 7-0 in conference singles action while finishing 4-1 against nationally ranked opponents. She also won her last five doubles matches to finish 10-4 in doubles with all of them being played at the top position.
After winning play of the year last season, Lopez continued her dominate run going 13-6 in singles splitting time between the top two spots. The junior lost just one match in conference play all season.
Paya grabbed All-PBC honors for the first time in her career after putting up a 17-4 overall record in singles. The sophomore spent most of her time in the third position and has won 11-straight matches for the Lady Cougars. She also finished with only three losses all season in doubles alongside her partner Paz as they earned a second team All-PBC selection.
Sachs has won eight straight matches in singles play and finished her second season at CSU with a 17-4 record. Her duo with Davico finished 12-3 on the season in doubles play earning them a spot on the first team.
Isaacs made it three consecutive seasons as coach of the year as he split the award this season with the head coach of Flagler. He led the Lady Cougars to a 19-4 record and a third straight regular season PBC title. Isaacs will have CSU in the NCAA Tournament for the 18thstraight season as they look to build upon their national semifinal run last season.
Columbus State enters the PBC Tournament as the No. 1 seed and will take on eighth-seeded Lander on Friday. First serve is scheduled for 12:00 p.m.