July 31, 2001

BLACKSBURG, Va. - The Virginia Tech men's and women's tennis teams capped a successful season on the court with a third-place finish in the BIG EAST Championships in May. Both teams success in the classroom has been recognized by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association as they recently received the ITA All-Academic Team award. Tech players Gerard Baynham and Ines Khelifi were named ITA Scholar-Athletes.

The ITA All-Academic Team award is open to any ITA four-year program that has a cumulative team grade point average of 3.20 or above. All eligible student-athletes whose names appear on the NCAA eligibility form and have competed in one or more matches are averaged into the team cumulative grade point average.

The women's team earned a GPA of 3.39 to receive the award for the fifth consecutive season. The men's squad posted a 3.28 GPA to qualify for the award for the first time.

The ITA Scholar-Athlete award is presented to a player who is a junior or senior, is a varsity letterwinner and has a grade point average of a least 3.50. Baynham, a senior last season from Arlington, Va. majoring in finance and communication studies, received the Scholar-Athlete award for the second consecutive season. He was named the 2000 Atlantic10 All-Conference selection and was a 2000 GTE/CoSIDA Second Team Academic All-American.

Khelifi, a junior last year from Quebec, Canada, majoring in computer science, posted 19 singles victories and 17 doubles wins for the Hokies. She was named the 2000 Atlantic10 Most Outstanding Player after posting 22 singles wins.

The men's teams is scheduled to open the season on Oct. 5-8 at the E.C.A.C. Invitational while the women's team is slated to open on Sept. 21-23 at the William & Mary Invitational.