Lady Pirates Sweep PBC Women's Tennis Awards

JONESBORO, Ga. - The Armstrong Atlantic State women's tennis squad swept the yearly Peach Belt Conference Women's Tennis awards at Friday night's annual banquet, held during this weekend's PBC Tennis Championships in Jonesboro, Ga.

Freshman Sona Novakova was named the league's Player and Freshman of the Year, while head coach Simon Earnshaw earned his seventh PBC Women's Tennis Coach of the Year honors.

Novakova becomes the first women’s tennis player to earn both the Freshman and Player of the Year titles in the same season since AASU’s Zsofi Golopencza in 2001 and the second overall. A true freshman from Slapanice in the Czech Republic, Novakova is the top-ranked singles player in Divsion II with a perfect 17-0 dual match record at #1 singles. She also won the ITA DII National Singles title in the fall and is 10-0 against nationally-ranked players this spring. She also helped lead Armstrong Atlantic State to their 15th PBC regular season championship and the top seed in the PBC Tournament.

Novakova continues a strong tradition of women’s tennis at Armstrong Atlantic State, becoming the seventh Lady Pirate to earn the Player of the Year honor. AASU women’s tennis players have been named Players of the Year 15 times in the 18-year history of PBC women’s tennis and Novakova’s award gives AASU the Player of the Year for the 11th consecutive year.

Earnshaw earns his seventh PBC Coach of the Year honor and third in a row after leading the Lady Pirates to their sixth straight PBC Championship. AASU has been the #1 team in the nation all season long after winning the 2008 national championship and enter the PBC Tournament with a 19-1 overall record. AASU was undefeated in PBC play once again, running their current conference win streak to 62 matches.

Sophomore Alida Muller-Wehlau joined Novakova as first-team All-PBC singles honorees, while Martina Beckmann and Gabriella Kovacs each earned second-team All-PBC singles honors. Muller-Wehlau is 14-2 this dual match season and is currently ranked No. 16 in NCAA Division II, while Beckmann - ranked No. 30 - is 13-2 in singles and No. 19-ranked Kovacs is 15-3.

Beckmann and Muller-Wehlau, the nation's second-ranked doubles team, earned first-team All-PBC doubles, while Kovacs and Novakova - ranked No. 7 in DII - earned second-team All-PBC doubles honors.

The top-seeded Lady Pirates received a first-round bye at the 2009 PBC Tennis Championships and will begin action on Saturday morning with an 8:00 a.m. quarterfinal match against eighth-seeded USC Aiken.