ITA Division I National Awards Announced; Incoming Stanford Freshmen Reach Semifinals at San Diego W15; Kotzen and Moreno Out of USTA USO Wild Card Playoff; Jovic, Svajda Advance at Ilkley 125s

The Intercollegiate Tennis Association released the names of the 2025 Division I National Award winners today, with Dasha Vidmanova of Georgia and Timo Legout of Texas claiming National Player of the Year honors. This award always goes to the player who is No. 1 in the final ITA rankings, so those award winners have been known for several weeks now. The Coach of the Year is usually the coach of the NCAA champion, as is the case this year, but that was not the case last year, when Alison Ojeda of NCAA semifinalist Tennessee was given the nod over Mark Weaver of Texas A&M. For details on each winner, click on the header to go to the ITA article.

WOMEN:

Coach of the Year: Drake Bernstein, Georgia

Assistant Coach of the Year: Ty Schaub, Michigan

Arthur Ashe Leadership and Sportsmanship: Nibi Ghosh, Notre Dame

Cissy Leary Sportsmanship: Elaine Chervinsky, Viriginia

Rookie of the Year: Cadence Brace, LSU

Most Improved: Kallista Liu, Maryland

Senior Player of the Year: Dasha Vidmanova, Georgia

Player to Watch: Piper Charney, Michigan

National Player of the Year: Dasha Vidmanova, Georgia

Earlier this week, Vidmanova was named the winner of the Honda Award for Tennis, which is an annual award sponsored by Collegiate Women's Sports. The Honda Cup, the overall award given to one athlete from among the winners of each sport, will be announced June 30 in a live telecast on CBS Sports Network.

MEN:

Coach of the Year:  Tony Bresky, Wake Forest

Assistant Coach of the Year:  Cris James, NC State

Arthur Ashe Leadership and Sportsmanship: Colton Smith, Arizona

Rafael Osuna Sportsmanship: Michael Zheng, Columbia

Rookie of the Year: Rafael Jodar, Virginia

Most Improved: Corey Craig, Florida State

Senior Player of the Year: Colton Smith, Arizona

Player to Watch: Kenta Miyoshi, Illinois

National Player of the Year: Timo Legout, Texas

At the SoCal Pro Series in San Diego, two Stanford incoming freshmen and two Loyola Marymount alumni have reached the women's W15 semifinals, and three University of San Diego players have advanced to the men's $15K semifinals.

No. 6 seed Alyssa Ahn, who made the semifinals in San Diego last year, defeating unseeded Selina Atay 6-4, 6-1 to defend those 2024 points. She will face No. 4 seed Stefania Rogozinska Dzik(Loyola Marymount) of Poland in an attempt to reach her first Pro Circuit final. Nineteen-year-old Mao Mushika(Cal) of Japan, the No. 7 seed, has reached the semifinals of all three SoCal Pro Series so far, beating Veronika Miroshnichenko(Loyola Marymount) of Russia 6-2, 0-6, 7-6(5) in today's quarterfinals. She will play the other 18-year-old rising freshman at Stanford, Tianmei Wang, who won her first Pro Circuit quarterfinal match today, beating Mao's twin sister Mio, the No. 3 seed, 6-2, 6-1.

Last week's champion Oliver Tarvet of Great Britain, a rising senior at the University of San Diego, is through to the semifinals after qualifier Toby Samuel(South Carolina) retired trailing 7-5, 4-4.  He will face San Diego resident Trevor Svajda, after the SMU rising junior defeated Andrew Fenty(Michigan) 6-3, 6-4. The other semifinal will feature two USD stars, who qualified this week: graduate Savriyan Danilov of Russia and rising senior Stian Klaassen of the Netherlands. Danilov beat No. 3 seed Alafia Ayeni(Cornell, Kentucky) 6-4, 6-4 and Klaassen defeated No. 8 seed Quinn Vandecasteele(Oregon) 2-6, 7-6(8), 6-3, saving two match points in the second set tiebreaker.

Svajda will need to make a quick trip to Florida after he's finished in San Diego, with he and SMU teammate Louis Cloud last minute replacements in the doubles draw at the USTA's US Open Collegiate Wild Card Playoffs.  Svajda and Cloud are taking the place of Tennessee's Alex Kotzen and Alejandro Moreno, who withdrew today due to injury, and will play Cooper Williams and Theo Winegar of Duke in the semifinals Tuesday night.

Svajda's older brother Zachary, a two-time Kalamazoo 18s champion, is also through to the semifinals this week, at the ATP Challenger 125 in Ilkley, England. The 22-year-old qualifier will face No. 7 seed Tristan Schoolkate of Australia in the semifinals after his 7-6(8), 4-6, 7-5 win over Leandro Riedi of Switzerland today. 

TCU's Jack Pinnington Jones of Great Britain, a wild card, has also advanced to the semifinals, where he'll face 2019 Wimbledon boys champion Shintaro Mochizuki if Japan.

Seventeen-year-old Iva Jovic, playing in just her third WTA 125 tournament and her first on grass, has needed three sets in all three of her matches this week, but is through to the Ilkley 125 semifinals after beating Talia Gibson of Australian 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 today. She will face her first seed this week Saturday, No. 2 seed Viktorija Golubic, 32, of Switzerland. No. 8 seed Rebecca Marino of Canada, who won this event last year when it was a W100, will face 19-year-old Celine Naef of Switzerland in the other semifinal. Jovic is currently 105 in the WTA live rankings after her win today.