Long Beach State's Hannah Grady earned Big West Player of the Year honors for the second straight season to highlight the naming of the 2007 women's tennis all-conference team Tuesday. Recipients of other top honors include Mike Edles of UC Irvine as the Big West Coach of the Year and Brittany Blalock of Cal Poly, who was named Big West Freshman of the Year.

Grady, a native of Coventry, England, is the first player in Long Beach State history to collect the conference's top honor in back-to-back seasons. She posted an 18-5 dual match record in the spring, including a 15-6 mark at No. 1 singles. Against Big West competition, she had a 9-1 record and won all three of her matches at the Big West Championship last week to lead the 49ers to the title. In Long Beach State's win over Cal Poly in the championship match, she notched the title-clinching point with a straight set victory against Blalock. Grady has been ranked in five of the nine individual rankings and has posted five victories against nationally ranked players this season. In addition, she was named Big West Women's Tennis Athlete of the Week three times.

Edles, in his 11th season at the helm of UC Irvine, garnered Coach of the Year accolades for the third time in his career (2000, 2002). He led the Anteaters to 21 wins, the highest single-season victory total since 1983. In addition, Edles guided UCI to the conference regular season championship with an undefeated 7-0 record. His team has been nationally ranked as high as 28th this season. However, his biggest accomplishment was in guiding UCI into the NCAA Tournament as an at-large team, the first time in Big West history that two teams have been selected to the postseason.

Blalock is the first Cal Poly women's tennis player in school history to win a major award. The native of Palm Desert, Calif. posted a 9-11 record playing at the No. 1 and No. 2 singles positions this season. She defeated fellow All-Big West First Team selection Becky Bernhard of UC Irvine in a semifinal match of the Big West Championship, helping the Mustangs to an upset of the top-seeded Anteaters. Another highlight of Blalock's season was an upset of No. 28-ranked Yasmin Schnack of UCLA on Jan. 23.

The following is a complete listing of the 2007 Big West All-Conference Team:

FIRST TEAM - SINGLES
Name	Yr.	School
Stephanie Bengson	Jr.	Long Beach State
Becky Bernhard	Jr.	UC Irvine
Brittany Blalock	Fr.	Cal Poly
Hannah Grady	So.	Long Beach State
Silvia Gutierrez	Sr.	Cal State Northridge
Kanykey Koichumanova	Jr.	Cal State Northridge
Katy Williams	So.	Long Beach State
SECOND TEAM - SINGLES
Name	Yr.	School
Inna Agababian	Jr.	UC Irvine
Carina Bjornstrom	Fr.	UC Santa Barbara
Carol Erickson	Sr.	Cal Poly
Gina Le	Sr.	Cal State Fullerton
Vana Mrazovic	Sr.	Pacific
Marta Simic	Jr.	UC Santa Barbara
HONORABLE MENTION - SINGLES
Name	Yr.	School
Svenja Arens	Fr.	Pacific
Jessica Broadfoot	Jr.	UC Irvine
Clare Fermin	So.	UC Irvine
Canna Furuta	Jr.	Cal State Northridge
Jolanta Twarowska	So.	Pacific

FIRST TEAM - DOUBLES
Name	School
Silvia Gutierrez/Kanykey Koichumanova	Cal State Northridge
Stephanie Bengson/Katy Williams	Long Beach State
Hannah Grady/Jessica Weeks	Long Beach State
Becky Bernhard/Clare Fermin	UC Irvine
SECOND TEAM - DOUBLES
Name	School
Gina Le/Mai-Ly Tran	Cal State Fullerton
Inna Agababian/Jessica Broadfoot	UC Irvine
Erynne Oki/Donna McCullough	UC Riverside
Marta Simic/Charlotte Scatliffe	UC Santa Barbara
HONORABLE MENTION - DOUBLES
Name	School
Vana Mrazovic/Svenja Arens	Pacific
Carina Bjornstrom/Asagi Onaga	UC Santa Barbara
Canna Furuta/Kanykey Koichumanova	Cal State Northridge

 

2007 BIG WEST PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Hannah Grady, Long Beach State

2007 BIG WEST COACH OF THE YEAR
Mike Edles, UC Irvine

2007 BIG WEST FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR
Brittany Blalock, Cal Poly