May 10, 2005

WACO, Texas - The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) announced its annual regional awards on Monday, May 9 and Baylor was well-represented in both the men's and women's regions.

Two Baylor females were honored by the ITA in 2005. Assistant coach Rebekah Rhodes was named Southwest Region Assistant Coach of the Year. Rhodes helped guide the Lady Bears to a Big 12 Championship and an undefeated league season. She is the second BU women's coach to earn this honor, Melissa Castro was the winner in 1997. Zuzana Zemenova earned Rookie of the Years honors, the talented freshman is currently ranked No. 23 in the lastest ITA national rankings. Zemenova joins former Baylor players Katja Kovac (1999) and Vida Mulec (2000) in earning rookie of the year accolades.

Baylor men's head coach Matt Knoll earned his third South Central Region Coach of the Year honor as he shared the award with Texas Tech's Tim Siegel. Knoll also was the 2002 and 2003 recipient of the award. Benedikt Dorsch, the nation's No. 2 ranked player, earned the region's Senior Player of the Year award, a first for a BU tennis player. Freshman Lars Poerschke was tabbed as the region's Rookie of the Year. He becomes Baylor's fourth player to earn that honor, Zoltan Papp (2000), Benjamin Becker (2002) and Matija Zgaga (2004) are all former rookies of the year. In addition, Dorsch has been nominated for the John Van Nostrand Memorial Award which is a stipend that goes to an outstanding senior men's player who plans to pursue a professional career after college. Senior Benjamin Becker is nominated for the Rafael Osuna Sportsmanship Award which is awarded to a men's player who displays sportsmanship, character, excellent academics and has had outstanding accomplishments.

National award winners will be announced the evenings of May 22 in Athens, Ga. (women) and May 25 in College Station, Texas (men).