JONESBORO, Ark. (7/13/12) – Seven members of the Arkansas State women's tennis team have been named as 2012 Scholar-Athletes by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. The team was also recognized as being one of the 2012 ITA All-Academic teams for their performance in the classroom.

Senior Ceara Howey (Gosforth, England), junior Ioana Teu (South Auckland, New Zealand), sophomores Janie Nowland (Buda, Texas) and Biljana Miloshevska (Skopje, Macedonia) and freshmen Tamara Slijepcevic (Novi Sad, Serbia), Jess Heeps-Eriksen (Melbourne, Australia) and Mariana Rong (Jinan, China) all earned All-American Scholar-Athlete status by carrying a grade-point average of at least 3.20.

“This is an outstanding achievement for our team,” ASU tennis coach Marina Engelbrecht said. “I am proud to have a group of young ladies that are fully committed to this program not only on the court but also in the classroom as well.”

Howey, who was also named to the Capital One CoSIDA Academic All-District 6 Women's at large team in May, finished the year with a 12-8 record and won eight-straight matches during the season.

Teu finished the season with an 11-7 record and took second in the fourth flight of the ASU Invitational. Nowland finished the season with a 7-12 record and won the second flight of the ASU Invitational.

Miloshevska finished the year with a record of 10-9 and won the third flight of the ASU Invitational. Slijepcevic finished with a team best 17-2 record, was named to the Sun Belt Conference All-Conference team and had winning streaks of eight and nine straight matches.

Heeps-Eriksen saw action primarily in doubles-competition where she compiled a 4-4 record with Miloshevska. In singles competition she finished with a 1-1 record. Rong had a record of 11-7 and won the top flight of the ASU Invitational.