La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse women's and men's tennis teams have earned the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Academic Award for the 2024-25 season, the organization has announced. It marks the 19th consecutive year the Eagles' women's squad has earned the award. UWL's men's team has earned the award seven times since the 2010-11 season.
The ITA All-Academic Team Award is open to any ITA program with a cumulative team grade point average of 3.20 or above (on a 4.00 scale). All varsity letter winners are factored into the cumulative team GPA for the current academic year.
UWL is one of two schools from the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) in earning this year's honor for both women and men, joining UW-Whitewater.
UW-Eau Claire, UW-Oshkosh and UW-Stevens Point earned the award in women's tennis while UW-Eau Claire garnered the men's accolade.
Seven members of UWL's 2024-25 women's squad were named to the ITA Scholar-Athlete Team, including sophomores
Izabelle Brinkman of
New Richmond (H.S.),
Emma Kappel of
River Hills (Nicolet),
Zoe Klicker of
Arlington Heights, Ill. (Prospect),
Lauren Lindow of
East Troy (H.S.) and
Maia Samuelson of
New Berlin (Eisenhower) and freshmen
Morgan Perkins of
Woodbury, Minn. (Stillwater) and
Katarina Zrnic of
Greendale (H.S.).
It is the second (2023-24, 2024-25) career ITA Scholar-Athlete Award for Brinkman, Klicker, Lindow and Samuelson.
Four members of UWL's 2024-25 men's team earned ITA Scholar-Athlete accolades, including juniors
Jack Hehli of
West Salem (H.S.) and
Luke Hinchcliffe of
Stevens Point (SPASH),
sophomore
Joe O'Flaherty of
La Crosse (Aquinas) and freshman
Tyler Schneider of Whitefish Bay (H.S.).
It is the third (2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25) career honor for Hehli and Hinchcliffe and second (2023-24, 2024-25) for O'Flaherty.
In order to earn ITA Scholar-Athlete status, a player must have accumulated a grade point average of at least 3.50 (on a 4.00 scale) for the current academic year and be listed on the institutional eligibility form.
Bill Hehli begins his 31st year as head coach of the UWL men's and women's tennis teams in 2025-26.
As the governing body of collegiate tennis, the ITA promotes both the athletic and academic achievements of varsity collegiate tennis players. The ITA, which is comprised of nearly 1,250 men's and women's varsity coaches and 20,000 student-athletes from over 1,700 institutions, has a comprehensive awards program for players and coaches to honor excellence in academics, leadership, sportsmanship and athletic performance. For more information about the ITA program, please visit
https://www.wearecollegetennis.com/ita/.
