July 12, 2010
SKILLMAN, N.J. – Georgia Tech rising junior Irina Falconi added another impressive title to her resume when she was named to the 2010 Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) All-Star Team Monday, which features the nation’s top-ranked players and National Champions for the 2009-10 season.
Falconi, who was named the 2010 ITA Women’s Tennis Player of the Year, will join the other top student-athletes, who will be treated by the ITA and United States Tennis Association (USTA) to a weekend in New York, highlighted by activities during Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Saturday, August 28th. The group will be honored at the ITA awards luncheon, hosted by the USTA in the President’s Dining Room Suite. Lucy Garvin, Chairman of the Board and President of the USTA, David A Benjamin, ITA Executive Director, David Dinkins, former Mayor of New York City and a member of the USTA Board of Directors, are among those on hand to present the awards.
This 27th edition of the ITA Collegiate All-Star Team includes the nation’s top-ranked men’s and women’s tennis players from the season-ending Campbell/ITA College Tennis Rankings at the NCAA Divisions I, II and III, NAIA and NJCAA levels, as well as champions from the 2009 ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships and 2010 NCAA Championships. Highlighting this year’s team are the Campbell/ITA National Players of the Year: Falconi of Georgia Tech and Robert Farah of USC.
Falconi, a two-time All-American, finished the season with a stellar 40-3 singles record and the best single-season winning percentage (.930) in program history. Falconi closed out the dual-match portion of the schedule with a 26-1 mark, which surpassed the previous record of 25 wins set by McDowell and was named the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year. During the dual-match season, Falconi had won 23 straight matches between Feb. 13 and May 29.
The nation’s No. 1 player led her team to the 2010 ACC Championship title with a 4-0 record, including a match-clinching victory in the championship match against then No. 1 North Carolina and was named the tournament’s MVP. After two seasons on the Flats, Falconi has won 70 singles matches, which already ranks her 10th in the Yellow Jacket record books in career victories.
In the fall, Falconi won the 2009 Riviera/ITA All-American Championships singles title and finished Runner-Up at the 2009 ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships. She was also a key member of the member of the championship winning U.S. team at the Master’U BNP Paribas international collegiate team championships.
Falconi will try and defend her 2009 title at the Norman Wilkerson Memorial Tournament this week at the Racquet Club of the South beginning Tuesday.
-RamblinWreck.com-
