Jan. 24, 2012
CHICAGO - Senior Elisa Simonetti of the women's tennis team has been named the UICFlames.com Scholar Athlete of the Week for the period ending January 22. Simonetti posted a straight-set singles win at Wisconsin last Saturday, helping the Flames nearly knock off the Badgers in the regular season dual opener.
Simonetti, a senior finance major with a 3.52 cumulative grade-point-average, defeated Wisconsin's Aleksandra Markovic at the No. 3 singles position, 6-2, 7-5, at Nielsen Tennis Stadium in Madison, Wis., last Saturday. She then teamed with Teona Tsertsvadze at the top doubles flight, and dropped a hard-fought, 9-8 (7-2) pro-set decision. The Badgers went on to capture the doubles point, and post a 5-2 victory in the dual match.
Simonetti was named to the "Silver Team" (3.5-3.99 GPA) during the fall semester, helping the UIC women's tennis team record the best team GPA among women's teams, an impressive 3.57 collective mark. Simonetti is 2-1 in singles play during the spring season, also defeating DePaul's Gia McKnight during the final day of the Northwestern Invitational (1/14/12).
The Scholar-Athlete of the Week Award is the newest addition to the recently re-designed UICFlames.com platform. Nominees must have at least a 3.0 cumulative GPA to be considered for the honor.
Other nominees for last week's Scholar-Athlete award included women's swimmer Marissa Yontz, Kristi Carling from the Flames' women's diving team, Chantel Turk, of the UIC women's gymnastics team, men's basketball player Hayden Humes, Keith Lage from men's gymnastics, men's swimmer Jay Schackle and Shamiea Green from the UIC women's basketball team.
