BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — For the first time since 2011 and third time in program history, Lady Tiger tennis has the freshman of the year, conference officials announced on Saturday at the annual awards banquet.
Kaede Amano, a Saitama Japan native, earns the honor for 2017 after leading the Lady Tigers to a three-seed in the upcoming tournament and a No. 21 national ranking in the NAIA poll.
"Myself and the team could not be prouder of Kaede for this honor," said coach
Kristen Hamrick. "With her high competitiveness and mental toughness, she outsmarts her opponents. Kaede does a great job by finding weaknesses in her opponents and attack those areas. She is already a very talented player, but with her strong work ethic she will only continue to get better."
This season, Amano boasts an 11-3 singles record with two of her losses coming to to Top 23 players in the Oracle/ITA NAIA Women's National Singles Rankings, which were released on April 12. She lost to NAIA First-Team All-American Isabella Dale from University of the Cumberlands and No. 23 Puck Luttikhuis from Davenport.
The wins have come in bunches, though. She started the year by winning four straight matches, including a pair of wins over NCAA Division foes – Maggie Walroth from Bellarmine and Neha Rao from Centre.
After falling to 2016 MSC Freshman of the Year, Alex Shchipakina from Lindsey Wilson, and Dale, Amano won four in-a-row once again before falling to Luttikhuis. Amana enters the tournament with a three-match win streak.
In doubles, she has been teamed up with
Majella Nobile for 13 of the 15 matches. In addition, she played the opening match of the season with
Bolor Enkhbayar and the second-to-last match with
Elizabeth Boik. The duo of Amano and Nobile went 9-4 overall.
Amano is the first Lady Tiger to earn Freshman of the Year honors since Tanya Murtagh did so in 2011 and Anita Henestrosa was Freshman of the Year and Co-Player of the Year in 2010.
The Lady Tigers get set to play in the first round of the MSC Tournament vs. Shawnee State University at 9 a.m. ET on Sunday, April 23 at Warren East High School.
