SIU men’s and women’s tennis finished the Missouri Valley Conference Championship with multiple individual awards.

For the women, junior Polina Dozortseva earned the Elite-18 Award, which is given to the student-athlete sporting the highest cumulative grade-point average after competing in the athlete’s sport’s championship. 

MORE: Saluki swimmer Bryn Handley also won the Elite-18 Award for women’s swimming.

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Dozortseva has a 3.96 cumulative GPA in management and finished with a 25-15 record in singles and doubles, including a 14-6 singles record. 

Freshman Katie Fries earned MVC Freshman of the Year with a 16-8 singles record, including 6-1 in the conference. Her 16 singles wins tied junior Ana Sofia Cordero for the most in the spring for SIU.

Fries is only the second Saluki to win the Freshman of the Year award — the first was Tana Trapani in 2001. 

Sophomore Xiwei Cai was named All-Select in the MVC, one of six players named to the team. In her first season at SIU, Cai reached the No. 1 spot in both singles and doubles, finishing with a 25-17 combined record.

The MVC All-Select team is comprised of the top-six players regardless of their flight and all-conference members aren’t eligible for selection. 

For the men, senior Jonny Rigby and junior Piotr Baranski were named to the  MVC All-Conference team. 

Rigby finished his career with 78 singles wins and 66 doubles wins, the most doubles wins in program history. His 144 combined wins rank second at SIU for career wins. 

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Baranski had 13 singles wins and eight doubles wins in his first season at SIU and went undefeated in MVC play. 

Rigby and Baranski were doubles partners in the spring and had an 8-2 record. 

Jacob Gaertner can be reached at [email protected] or at 618-536-3303.