Duran, Clark, Wesselink Earn Atlantic 10 Women's Tennis Honors
05/01/2009 | Women's Tennis
May 1, 2009
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. -
Richmond senior Pamela Duran has been named the Atlantic 10 women's tennis Most Outstanding Performer in voting conducted among the Conference's head coaches following the Atlantic 10 Women's Tennis Championship.
Head coach Erin Clark was selected as the Student-Athlete of the Year in a separate vote of the Conference's sports information directors.
Duran also won Most Outstanding Performer honors in 2007 and is just the second women's tennis standout to twice earn the award. At first singles and second doubles, she helped lead the Spiders to their sixth league crown at the 2009 Atlantic 10 Women's Tennis Championship, held Apr. 17-19 at the Club 4 Life in Monroeville, Pa.
Duran, who hails from Guayaquil, Ecuador, went undefeated during the Championship with a 1-0 record in singles and 2-0 record in doubles matches. At first singles, she garnered a 6-1, 6-2 victory in the finals over first-team selection Elyse Steiner of Temple. In doubles, Duran teamed with sophomore teammate Isabel Arana in second-flight doubles to earn victories over Saint Louis (8-2), Charlotte (8-5) and Temple (8-1).
Joining Duran on the All-Conference first-team are fellow Spiders Erin Clark and Kelly Tidwell. For Duran, it marks the fourth straight season she has been selected to the first-team. Richmond's Helen Cunningham was named to the Second Team.
Clark earns Student-Athlete of the Year honors after finishing the season with a combined 13 victories. The junior from Vienna, Va., was 3-0 in singles during the A-10 Championship, which included a 6-3, 6-0 win in the title match against Temple's Lucie Pazderova. It is the first time she has been named to the Academic All-Conference team.
Wesselink earns his fifth Coach of the Year award for leading Richmond to its sixth A-10 title in the last eight seasons. The Championship's top seed, Richmond registered wins over Saint Louis (4-0), Charlotte (4-0) and Temple (4-0) en route to capturing the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.