COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Texas A&M’s Rachel Pierson was named First Team All-SEC for women’s tennis, and Aggie teammate Rutuja Bhosale (pronounced rue-too-jah BO-slay) was named Second Team All-SEC, the Southeastern Conference announced today.
Pierson, a senior from Princeton, New Jersey, is making her second appearance on an All-SEC team, having also received first-team accolades as a sophomore. Bhosale, a senior from Pune, India, has been named to the second team for a third consecutive year.
Pierson, who plays the No. 1 line in both singles and doubles, is a team-high 18th in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) national singles rankings, tying her career high. Pierson teams with Bhosale in doubles, and the duo, currently No. 8 in the nation, received an all-time program-high No. 4 ranking earlier this month.
Pierson leads the Aggies with a 26-12 overall singles record and also is a team-best 16-9 in dual matches only. She went 7-5 in conference matches only, having closed out the SEC regular season riding a five-match winning streak. Included in that streak was a straight-set victory over SEC Player of the Year and then-No. 4 Astra Sharma of Vanderbilt, marking Pierson’s highest ranked win of her career.
Bhosale is No. 54 in singles with a 19-12 overall record, including a 14-8 record at the No. 2 line and 6-4 in conference matches only. She recorded the highest ranked win of her career in the SEC regular season finale, defeating 11th-ranked Elena Christofi of Georgia to cap the Aggies’ first-ever victory over the Bulldogs.
Pierson and Bhosale are 24-10 overall in doubles, including 13-8 in dual matches only and 6-4 in SEC contests. Bhosale, who leads the Aggies with a 26-11 overall record in doubles, has 89 career doubles victories, tying her for ninth in the Texas A&M career records.
Texas A&M second-year head coach Mark Weaver and the 20th-ranked Aggies, who tied for eighth in the SEC standings with a 6-7 record and are 16-12 overall, now await the NCAA Tennis Selection Show and the announcement of the 64-team NCAA Championship field on Tuesday, May 2 at 4:30 p.m. on NCAA.com. A&M, which advanced to the second round last year, is expecting to make its 18th consecutive and 23rdoverall appearance in the postseason tournament.
NCAA singles and doubles tournament selections will be released on the NCAA website on Wednesday, May 3.
Visit 12thMan.com for more information on Texas A&M women’s tennis. Aggie fans also can keep up to date with the A&M women’s tennis team on Twitter by following @AggieWTEN or on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/pages/Aggie-Womens-Tennis/143874782434654
A complete list of the 2017 SEC awards follows, and ties were not broken leading to 14-member All-SEC First-Team and a seven-member All-Freshman team.
First Team All-SEC
Erin Routliffe, Alabama
Alizee Michaud, Auburn
Ingrid Neel, Florida
Josie Kuhlman, Florida
Belinda Woolcock, Florida
Elena Christofi, Georgia
Ellen Perez, Georgia
Jade Lewis, LSU
Arianne Hartono, Ole Miss
Jasmine Lee, Mississippi State
Rachel Pierson, Texas A&M
Sydney Campbell, Vanderbilt
Astra Sharma, Vanderbilt
Emily Smith, Vanderbilt
Second Team All-SEC
Shannon Hudson, Arkansas
Andie Dikosavljevic, Auburn
Kourtney Keegan, Florida
Anna Danilina, Florida
Kennedy Shaffer, Georgia
Aldila Sutjiadi, Kentucky
Joana Valle Costa, LSU
Bea Santos, Missouri
Mia Horvit, South Carolina
Brittany Lindl, Tennessee
Rutuja Bhosale, Texas A&M
Fernanda Contreras, Vanderbilt
All-Freshman
Taylor Russo, Auburn
Ingrid Neel, Florida
Elena Christofi, Georgia
Jade Lewis, LSU
Lisa Marie Rioux, Mississippi State
Mia Horvit, South Carolina
Christina Rosca, Vanderbilt
Player of the Year
Astra Sharma, Vanderbilt
Co-Freshmen of the Year
Elena Christofi, Georgia
Jade Lewis, LSU
Tri-Scholar-Athletes of the Year
Danielle Spielmann, Alabama
Aldila Sutjadi, Kentucky
Georgina Sellyn, Vanderbilt
Coach of the Year
Geoff Macdonald, Vanderbilt
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics