Four members of the Barton Community College tennis program received distinguished All-America awards distributed by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA).
In addition to the program's accolades, Head Coach Lyle Stickney also received national recognition receiving the Herschel Stephens Coaching Award, presented to a coach for Outstanding Service and Dedication to the NJCAA Tennis Coaches' Association. Both of Coach Stickney's squads completed their season with the best national result in recent memory, the women placing 7th overall with the men finishing 8th.
Recipients receive the ITA award that finish in the top 10 of the final ITA singles rankings and to doubles pairings that finish in the top 5 of the final ITA doubles rankings.
Alexandra Abyasova was the lone Barton singles player of the award, going 8-1 on the regular season with the lone loss coming to the No. 3 ranked player in the nation. Abyasova finished the ITA rankings at 6th after advancing to the national quarterfinals before losing to the eventual national runner-up.
The Cougars' top duo of Annunciata De-Souza and Natsuki Nishimura were the nation's 3rd ranked tandem. Completing the regular season at 10-3, losses came to the rackets of a NCAA Division I squad and the NJCAA's No. 7 and top ranked doubles tandems. De-Souza and Nishimura were seeded fourth in the NJCAA Championships, winning their first three matches by a combined 36-5 scores before dropping a third set loss in the semifinals to the eventual national champion.
On the men's side, the Cougars' lone seeded entry at the national tournament was the No. 1 duo of Samrakshyak Bajracharya and Eduardo Morais as the pair finished the season ranked 5th overall. After receiving a first round bye, the pair advanced to the quarterfinals victory but had their season end to the eventual national runner-up.