ORLANDO – The UCF women's tennis team saw two Knights earn American Athletic All-Conference Team honors on Monday. Seniors Marie Mattel and Nandini Sharma were selected to the team following a vote by the conference's head coaches.
This is Mattel's second-straight nod to the All-AAC team, being a unanimous selection both years. She was named American Athletic Conference Player of the Week twice during the 2023 season, going 8-8 in singles and 9-8 in doubles. The Le Plessis-Bouchard, France native collected four ranked singles wins in the spring and three in the fall, as well as two ranked doubles wins.
Despite battling injuries throughout the season, the senior reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 30, tying the seventh-highest singles ranking in program history. She ended the season as the highest-ranked singles player in the AAC, earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Singles Championship for the second year in a row. Mattel is just the second player in program history to earn a singles berth in back-to-back years. As it stands, Mattel is tied for fifth in career singles victories (74), second in career doubles wins (76) and is also second in combined career victories (150).
Sharma lands her first-ever All-AAC team honor, after a strong senior season. The Knight went 12-6 in singles and 9-7 in doubles, earning three combined ranked wins over the year, the highlight of those being an upset over the No. 8 doubles tandem from NC State as an unranked duo with Stefani Webb.
The Chandigarh, India native was named the AAC Player of the Week during the 2023 campaign and clinched three matches for the Knights. Sharma ends her time at UCF second in career singles victories (81), sixth in career doubles wins (60) and fourth in combined career victories (141). Her win percentages are also noteworthy, as she is among the top 10 in career singles win percentage (.717) and third in combined career win percentage (.705).
The full AAC Women's Tennis awards can be found below:
Player of the Year
Hadley Doyle, Sr., SMU
Freshman of the Year
Maiko Uchijima, Temple
Coach of the Year
Jeff Nevolo, SMU *
All-Conference Team
Marie Mattel, Sr., UCF *
Nandini Sharma, Sr., UCF
Laura Slisane, Jr., Houston
Camila Soares, Jr., Memphis
Sierra Berry, So., South Florida *
Grace Schumacher, Jr., South Florida
Hadley Doyle, Sr., SMU *
Taylor Johnson, Gr., SMU *
Drew Morris, So., SMU
Jamie Wei, Gr., Temple *
Maiko Uchijima, Fr., Temple
Laia Conde Monfort, Sr., Tulsa *
* unanimous selection
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