April 20, 2005

Miller Earns ACC Rookie of the Year, Shelton Tabbed ACC Coach of the Year

April 20, 2005

CARY, NC – Georgia Tech head coach Bryan Shelton was named the 2005 ACC Coach of the Year and freshman Kristi Miller earned the 2005 ACC Rookie of the Year Award while joining two other Yellow Jackets on the all-Atlantic Coast Conference team, as announced by the league office at the 2005 ACC Championship Banquet Wednesday evening.

Miller, senior Dasha Potapova and sophomore Alison Silverio were all tabbed to the all-conference team for the first time in their careers. Georgia Tech, Clemson, Miami and North Carolina all placed three student-athletes on this year’s all-conference team, while Wake Forest added two and Duke, Florida State, Maryland and Virginia Tech rounded out the all-conference team with one selection apiece.

Shelton earned the honor for the second time in his career after leading the Yellow Jackets to a 16-3 regular season record and the top seed in this week’s conference championship with a 9-1 mark in ACC matches. This season he guided Georgia Tech to its highest ranking in school history at sixth nationally in the most recent ITA poll. Shelton enters the tournament with the highest winning percentage in Georgia Tech history at .616 (82-51) and becomes just the sixth coach in ACC women’s tennis history to be named the conference Coach of the Year on multiple occasions.

Miller was selected as the women’s tennis Rookie of the Year, marking the second time in conference history and the second time in the last three years that a Yellow Jacket has received the honor. She set the Georgia Tech single-season school record for both singles and doubles victories with 37 and 25, respectively, in her first year. The Marysville, Mich. native also achieved the highest ranking by an individual in Yellow Jacket history at No. 14 in the nation in early April. She currently ranks 19th in singles and 18th in doubles by the ITA and has compiled a 7-3 mark in ACC play this season, while 17 of her 37 singles victories have come against ranked opponents.

Potapova has recorded 22 singles and 21 doubles victories this season, playing primarily in the No. 2 singles and No. 2 doubles positions. She recorded seven singles and six doubles wins against ACC opponents this spring and is Tech’s only senior this season. Silverio is currently tied with Miller for the most doubles victories on the team (25) and joins Miller as the only Yellow Jackets to record more than 25 singles and doubles victories in the same season in Georgia Tech history.

Miami’s Megan Bradley, ranked No. 1 in singles in the country, was named the conference’s Player of the Year after going 10-0 in ACC matches and 20-0 in dual-match play this season.

The Yellow Jackets will begin tournament play Friday at 9 a.m. when they face the winner of the Florida State-Virginia match at 9 a.m. at the Cary Tennis Center.