Sugiyama, Tatsuno Earn All-Big Ten Honors
4/23/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
PARK RIDGE, Ill. -- Senior Chisako Sugiyama(Parsippany, N.J./The Montclair Kimberley Academy) and sophomore Rika Tatsuno(Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif./Palos Verdes Peninsula HS) were named unanimous selections to the 2009 All-Big Ten Conference team, the league office announced on Thursday (April 23). It marks Sugiyama's third straight All-Big Ten honor and Tatsuno's first.
Sugiyama, who is currently ranked 62nd in the national singles rankings, recently completed her fourth straight 20-win campaign (20-12) and holds a dual-match record of 14-6 at the top two positions(8-2 Big Ten). She earned her conference-record sixth Big Ten Player of the Week accolade on Feb. 3 and became U-M's all-time singles wins leader with her 101st career victory on April 9. Sugiyama and junior Tania Mahtani(Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif./Palos Verdes Peninsula HS), who are listed 27th nationally in doubles, have compiledan overall record of 19-7 and a dual-match mark of 14-4 at No. 1. The Wolverine tandemfinished at 9-1 in the Big Tenand enters the postseason on a team-high nine-match winning streak.
Tatsuno, the 97th-rankedsingles player in the country, carries a team-best 22-10 overall record and has gone 13-7 in dual-match play at the top two spots (7-3 Big Ten). She has been named Big Ten Player of the Week twice this season and has won four of her last five matches. Tatsuno and sophomore Whitney Taney(Edina, Minn./Edina HS) have tallied an impressive 13-4 dual-match mark at No. 2 (7-1 Big Ten) and have gone unbeaten in their last eight outings.
Taney was named Michigan's Big Ten Sportsmanship Award honoree. Taney has posted an overall singles record of 13-9, including an 11-6 dual-match mark at Nos. 3-5 (6-1 Big Ten). She has been the team's most consistent performer on the doubles court with a remarkable overall record of 25-5. The student-athletes chosen for the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award are individuals who have distinguished themselves through sportsmanship and ethical behavior. In addition, the student-athletes must be in good academic standing and have demonstrated good citizenship outside of the sports-competition setting.
The Wolverines enter the Big Ten Tournament as the No. 2 seed and face No. 7 seed Wisconsin in the quarterfinals on Friday (April 24) at 2 p.m. CDT. The annualconference tournament will be played Thursday through Sunday (April23-26) at theUniversity of Wisconsin's Nielsen Tennis Stadiumin Madison, Wis.
Contact: Marc Ressler (734) 645-0045
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