Courtesy of Newberry College Athletics
NEWBERRY — For the second year in a row, a Newberry Wolf has earned the South Atlantic Conference Women’s Tennis Player of the Year, the conference’s top individual award. Senior Nastassia Chamoun (Reunion Island, France) was the top player of the 2023 season as voted on by the conference’s coaches. She is the second Wolf to be honored with the award.
In her senior season, Chamoun posted a 20-1 singles record and was 10-1 in conference play. In doubles play, she posted a 19-0 record while playing every match at No. 1 doubles this season.
The announcement comes as part of the South Atlantic Conference’s announcement of all-conference selections and individual awards for the 2023 season. The Wolves had five all-conference selections, three of which were first team, and brought home both individual player awards.
Joining Chamoun with the other individual player award is freshman Sofia Cardenas (Bogotá, Colombia) who earned SAC Freshman of the Year honors. She posted a 15-3 singles record on the season and was 11-0 in SAC play and was also selected to the second team singles all-conference. Cardenas becomes the second to don the scarlet and gray to be named the conference’s freshman of the year, joining Autise Mortimer who earned the award in 2007.
The Wolves had two players selected as part of the first team singles: Chamoun and last season’s SAC Player of the Year, redshirt senior Zulay Castaneda (Panama City, Panama). Castaneda, who peaked as high as an individual ranking of No. 51 by the ITA, posted a 15-2 singles record on the season and played all but one of her matches at No. 1 singles. She was 7-1 in SAC play.
Chamoun and Castaneda combined as a top choice for first team doubles. They posted a 15-0 record and were 8-0 in SAC play. They played every match together at No. 1 doubles and had one nationally ranked victory.
Rounding out the Wolves all-conference accolades is freshman Aina Miralles (Barcelona, Catalonia) who was selected to third team singles. She posted a 17-2 record this season and was 8-2 in conference play while primarily playing at No. 5 singles.
The announcements come as no surprise to the Wolves who have been ranked nationally by the ITA since the first poll of the season released on Jan. 20. Newberry also earned the No. 6 ranking in the NCAA’s Division II Southeast Regional Poll.