Virginia Sweeps VaSID Women's Tennis Awards
June 23, 2016
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia women’s tennis program swept the top honors with the announcement of VaSID annual awards on Thursday. Danielle Collins (St. Petersburg, Fla.) was named Player of the Year, Meghan Kelley (Falmouth, Me.) was named Rookie of the Year and head coach Mark Guilbeau collected Coach of the Year honors.
The Cavaliers have earned Player of the Year and Coach of the Year for three consecutive seasons. This marks the second time in three years that they have swept the major awards.
Earning first-team VaSID honors in singles were Collins, Kelley and senior Julia Elbaba (Oyster Bay, N.Y.), while Stephanie Nauta (Galveston, Texas) earned second-team honors in singles. The doubles pairing of Collins and Kelley earned first-team honors in doubles.
Collins earned the top honor for the second time in her career (2014) after claiming the NCAA women’s tennis singles championship and advancing to the NCAA women’s tennis doubles championship Sweet 16. An ITA All-American for the third consecutive season, she posted a 38-4 record in the top position, including a 28-4 mark against nationally-ranked opponents, to earn the No. 1 national ranking in singles play. She was named the ITA Senior Player of the Year and is a candidate for the Honda Award as the nation’s top female collegiate athlete.
In her first collegiate season, Kelley went 29-9 in singles play and closed the season winning seven of her final eight matches after moving up to the No. 4 position. She appeared and the Sweet 16 for doubles alongside Collins, finishing the year ranked 15th nationally amongst doubles pairings.
Guilbeau was tabbed the state’s top coach for a third consecutive year after guiding the Cavaliers to the Elite Eight of the NCAA women’s tennis championships. The trip marked Virginia’s second-ever appearance in the Elite Eight. He coached Collins to the NCAA singles title and ITA National Player of the Year honors, as well as coached Julia Elbaba to 133 career singles victories and the ITA Cissie Leary Award for Sportsmanship.
Elbaba posted a 37-9 record on the season at No. 2 singles for the Cavaliers and earned All-America honors for the fourth time, becoming the program’s first four-time All-America selection in singles competition.
Nauta posted a 20-14 mark in singles competition to help the Cavaliers secure the berth in the Elite Eight and served as a team captain for the season.
In doubles, the pairing of Collins and Kelley went 25-11 on the season and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Women’s Doubles Championships and secured a win over the nation’s top-ranked doubles team from North Carolina in the NCAA Women’s Tennis Championships to help the squad advance to the Elite Eight for the second time in the last three seasons.