NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Fordham graduate student Valeriya Deminova along with Saint Louis senior Elizabeth Mintusova garnered the Atlantic 10 Conference Women's Tennis Most Outstanding Co-Performer accolades while Massachusetts freshman Melisa Senli scored the Most Outstanding Rookie honors. On the men’s side, VCU graduate student Charles Bertimon along with Saint Joseph's freshman Inigo Diaz have been named the A-10 Men’s Tennis Most Outstanding Performer and Rookie Performer, respectively.
The awards were announced Tuesday following a vote by the league’s head coaches. Fordham's Mike Sowter earned A-10 Women’s Tennis Coach of the Year, while Dayton's Ryan Meyer and VCU’s Anthony Rossi were named Men’s Tennis Co-Coaches of the Year.
A perennial No. 1 slot for the Rams, Deminova posted a 12-7 overall singles record on the season, including two key victories in the A-10 Women's Tennis Championship. Hailing from Moscow, Russia, the graduate student paced Fordham to the program's first-ever A-10 title, helping clinch the doubles point in the final versus VCU with a win in the top flight.
A three-time A-10 Women’s Tennis Player of the Week this year, Mintusova posted a 25-6 overall singles record that included an 18-3 mark (17-3 at No. 1) in dual matches. The 25 wins tied the fifth-highest single-season total in Saint Louis program history and included a 5-0 record (2-0 at the A-10 Championship) versus A-10 opponents. In doubles, the Moscow import set the school record of 27 victories (27-2), and her 21-1 ledger in duals included a 20-1 mark at the No. 2 position.
Bertimon, a European import out of Champagne Sur Seine, France, closed out the season slotted at No. 83 in ITA men’s singles rankings, topping the nationally-ranked 11th player during the Rams' match with Harvard as well as the No. 80 player during a clash against Tulane. Overall, Bertimon clinched a strong 27-8 singles record for the year as either the No. 1 or No. 2 court, earning A-10 Performer of the Week on five separate occasions and advancing to the NCAA Singles Tournament.
Consistently competing at either the No. 1 or No. 2 position for UMass, Senli battled to a 17-10 mark on the season in singles play, helping guide the Minutewomen to a 12-7 record. A native of Izmir, Turkey, she collected a strong 16-9 mark in doubles as well, working in the top flight from mid-February through the conclusion of the campaign.
Diaz, a native of Mexico City, Mexico, concluded the season with a competitive 22-7 record in men’s singles play this year, including a 14-1 mark in the third flight and a 4-0 mark against A-10 opposition. The freshman also tallied 17 doubles match victories for the Hawks, pushing his win total for the year up to 39.
An eight-year veteran at Fordham, Sowter took the reigns of the women's program for the first time in 2021 and now, just a year later, has scored Fordham its first-ever A-10 title, defeating defending champion VCU via a 4-1 decision. Overall, the Rams closed out the year at 14-8 with a notable 5-1 against league competition, dropping tight 4-3 losses to ranked opponents No. 42 Brown and No. 57 Yale in early March. During the A-10 Championship, Fordham put together an elite showing, losing just one point total with two initial sweeps of No. 7 Rhode Island and third-seeded Massachusetts before knocking off VCU.
Meyer has served at the helm of the Flyer tennis program since November of 2012, accumulating 138 wins in dual play in 10 season. Dayton has won 15-plus games five times in the Meyer era - - 2023 (15), 2022 (16), 2019 (16), 2018 (18) and 2016 (16) – and he ranks second all-time in Flyers men’s tennis history in total wins, trailing only Steve Brumbaugh, who coached from 1997 to 2009 and accumulated 164 wins. Dayton advanced to the A-10 Championship final, faltering to top-seeded VCU.
Rossi, now in his fifth season as the head coach of the Rams, led VCU to 20-6 overall record on the season en route to the program's sixth consecutive A-10 Men's Tennis Championship. VCU scored a perfect 2-0 against league opponents during the regular-season slate while composing four victories against nationally-ranked foes, including tight wins over No. 30 Cornell and 35th-ranked Tulane as well as dominant victories versus No. 54 Virginia Tech and No. 64 USF.
Joining Deminova, Mintusova and Senli on the Women‘s All-Conference First Team are Fordham's Avery Aude, Eleni Fasoula and Lindsay Hung, George Mason's Paige La, George Washington's Gabriela Giraldo and Stella Wiesemann, Massachusetts' Danielle Hack and VCU's Yelizaveta Karlova and Victoria Smirnova.
The Women’s All-Conference Second Team featured Davidson's Josie Schaffer, Dayton's Natalie Osiecki, Duquesne's Daniela Latoni, Fordham's Carlota Casasampere, Mason's Taylor Garcia, UMass' Mariya Krasakova, Rhode Island's Valentina Cvackova and Sophie Hermann, Richmond's Andrea Campodonico and Leonor Oliveira, Saint Joseph's Stow Weiss and Saint Louis' Norhan Hesham.
Joining Charles Bertimon and Diaz on the Men’s All-Conference First Team are Dayton's Connor Bruce and Matt DeMarco, Duquesne's Kaipo Marshall, Richmond's Daniel Kliebhan, Saint Joseph's Alejandro Vedri, Saint Louis' Ryota Fukushima and VCU's Maxence Bertimon, Matisse Bobichon, Romain Gales and Rayane Stable.
The Men’s All-Conference Second Team consisted of Davidson's William Clark and Alejandro Solares, Duquesne's David Georgadze, Fordham's Quinn Fender, George Mason's Monil Lotlikar and Rithik Sardana, Richmond's William Karpinski and John Walsh, St. Bonaventure's Archie Graham, Saint Louis' Adam Behun and Andres Castellanos and VCU's Joaquim Almeida.
The Women’s All-Academic team, which is voted on by the league’s tennis communications directors, included Fordham's Casasampere, Mason's Garcia and La and VCU's Karlova plus Rhode Island's Nadia Rajan and St. Bonaventure's Alexandra Jansson. The Men’s All-Academic team included Davidson’s William Clark, Dayton’s Bruce and both VCU's Charles Bertimon and Stable plus Duquense's Jin Dassanayake and George Mason's Rishab Sardana.