ROCK HILL, SC—The 2011-12 Winthrop women's tennis team has been named an All-Academic Team by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association and three members of the team have earned ITA Scholar-Athlete honors. 

The ITA All-Academic Team award is open to any ITA program that has a cumulative team grade point average of 3.20 or above (on a 4.00 scale) for the fall 2011 and spring 2012 semesters.  The Eagle women had a team GPA of 3.504  for the year.  The Winthrop women's team was among 103 NCAA Div. I schools and three Big South Conference members to receive the award. The other two Big South schools were Coastal Carolina and UNC Asheville.

The three members of the women's team who were named ITA Scholar-Athletes for achieving a 3.5 GPA or better for the academic year include: Yasmine Alkema (Jr., Algiers, Algeria), 3.576, business administration; Giovanna Portiolli (Jr., Curitiba, Brazil), 3.97, environmental science; Andressa Garcia (So., Sao Paulo, Brazil), 3.834, business administration.

“I am very proud of the players,” said women's head coach Cid Carvalho. “They have their priorities in the right order.  It is difficult to juggle academics, their sport and social lives, but the athletes here at Winthrop do a great job.”