ORLANDO - Two members of the UCF women's tennis team have been named to the 2023 Academic All-District Women's Tennis Team, selected by College Sports Communicators on Tuesday.
Noel Saidenova and Marie Mattel were recognized for their athletic and academic excellence. The nomination to the All-District team makes the Knights eligible to be voted onto the CSC Academic All-America Teams. CSC members will vote for All-America selections in the upcoming weeks and the players selected to receive first-, second-, and third-team Academic All-America honors will be announced on June 1.
Saidenova started in 19 matches for the Black and Gold this season, collecting five singles and seven doubles wins her sophomore season, highlighted by ranked wins over the nation's 78th-ranked singles player from Auburn and FIU doubles tandem, which was listed No. 44 in the ITA Rankings.
Captain Mattel has had a phenomenal season, collecting seven ranked singles and two ranked doubles wins to go along with her combined 17 wins. As the highest-ranked singles player in the American Athletic Conference at No. 37, she earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Singles Championship for the second year, a feat achieved only once before in program history. The Le Plessis-Bouchard, France native's career-high singles ranking of No. 30 tied the record for the seventh-highest singles ranking at UCF.
This award recognizes the country's top athletes based on their performances both on the courts and in the classroom. To be nominated for the award, athletes must have played at least half of all regular season contests and have earned at least a 3.5 GPA for their entire academic career.
