FORT MYERS, Fla. – After a solid freshman campaign, Sarah Means (Wesley Chapel, Fla./Wiregrass Ranch HS) highlighted the FGCU women’s tennis postseason recognition, being named to the Atlantic Sun All-Conference second team and to the All-Freshmen Team.  Rounding out the year-end accolades, junior Morgan Bechtel (Toledo, Ohio/St. Ursula Academy) and unanimous selection Bettina Botha (Cape Town, South Africa/DeKuilen HS) were named to the Academic All-Conference team, announced by the league on Thursday afternoon.

Means finished the regular season with a 9-10 dual match record and a 5-4 mark in A-Sun matches at No. 1 singles. Means’ four league losses were each to eventual All-Conference picks, while two of them went to three sets. Since arriving on campus, Means was inserted into the No. 1 singles position and didn’t disappoint with nine wins in her first season.

Bechtel was second on the team with ten dual match wins and tied for the team lead with a 6-3 A-Sun record.  Bechtel, who has a 3.74 GPA in resort & hospitality, earned a spot on the A-Sun Academic All-Conference team.

Botha led the team with an 11-7 dual match record, including a 6-3 A-Sun mark, playing at the No. 3, 4, and 5 positions in the lineup this season. Botha, who has a 3.81 GPA in environmental engineering, earned a unanimous selection to the A-Sun Academic All-Conference team.    

Heading into their first-ever A-Sun Tourney on Friday, the Eagles (9-10, 6-3 A-Sun) earned the No. 3 seed after winning two matches on the road in Nashville against Lipscomb (5-2) and Belmont (7-0) last weekend. The Green and Blue went 6-3 in conference to tie the most ever wins since the 2010 season. FGCU was ruled eligible for postseason play in all 14 of its Division I sports on August 12, 2011 after going through the transitional period the previous four years.

The winner of the match between the Eagles and sixth-seeded Jacksonville will play second-seeded ETSU (11-8, 7-2 A-Sun) on Saturday, April 21 at 4 p.m.
  
Player of the Year: Aline Berkenbrock, UNF
Freshman of the Year: Virginie Stein, KSU
Coach of the Year: Audra Cohen, UNF

First Team All-Atlantic Sun
Name                     School          Cl.
* Aline Berkenbrock UNF              Sr.
* Vera Shkundina     KSU              Sr.
Alexandra Apostu      KSU              So.
Paula Jaime             ETSU            Sr.
Lorena Aviles           UNF              Jr.
Danielle Day            UNF              Sr.
Giulia Andreazza       ETSU            So.
Virginie Stein            KSU              Fr.
*Unanimous Selection

Second Team All-Atlantic Sun
Name                     School          Cl.
Singles
Sarah Means             FGCU             Fr.
Isabel von Stryk       USC Upstate   Jr.
Shannon Gunning      Stetson         Sr.
Natalia Melibeu         Jacksonville    So.
Marine Wieliczko       ETSU            Sr.
Diana Bukajeva        Stetson         So.
Diana Navrostska     ETSU            Sr.
Jessica Brumit          ETSU            Fr.

Doubles
Lorena Aviles           UNF              Jr.
Aline Berkenbrock                        Sr.
Rebeca Pereira         UNF
Simona Weymar                          So.
Danielle Day            UNF              Sr.
Melanie Aguirre                            Jr.

All-Freshman Team
Name                     School
Virginie Stein            KSU
Jana Hueckinghaus    KSU
Marina Cunningham   UNF
Isabel von Stryk       USC Upstate
Rebeca Pereira         UNF
Aline Staudt             Jacksonville
Jessica Brumit          ETSU
Sarah Means             FGCU

All-Academic Player of the Year: Paula Jaime
First Team All-Academic
Name                     School          Cl.
*Alexandra Apostu    KSU              So.  
*Paula Jaime            ETSU            Sr.
*Bettina Botha         FGCU              So.  
Simona Weymar       UNF              So.  
Jen Miller                 Stetson         Jr. .
Samantha Bowman   Lipscomb       Sr.  
Morgan Bechtel        FGCU              Jr.  
Natalia Nunes           Belmont        Jr.
*Unanimous Selection