IRVINE, Calif. -- The All-Big West women’s tennis teams and major award winners are now revealed, four days after the conclusion of the 2023 Big West Women’s Tennis Championship. The teams and awards were voted on by the league’s ten head coaches.
UC Santa Barbara sophomore Amelia Honer is The Big West Player of the Year. Honer went 16-1 overall, 9-1 in conference play, all at the No. 1 singles spot. The Newtown, Pa. product is the highest ranked singles player from the Big West in the ITA rankings, sitting at 56 in the latest edition. Honer not only made the All-Big West First Team as a singles player, but also as a doubles pair with teammate Kira Reuter, going 13-3 overall and 8-0 in Big West action, all at the top spot. The Gaucho duo is ranked 16th in the nation. Honer will be a participant in both singles and doubles, with Reuter, in the upcoming NCAA Women’s Tennis Championship.
Cal Poly’s Alexandra Ozerets is The Big West Freshman of the Year. Ozerets went 15-5 overall and 7-2 in conference play. As a main fixture in the latter half of the lineup, the Mustang rookie went 1-0 at No. 4, 6-3 at No. 5 and 8-2 at No. 6 singles, 4-1 at No. 5 and 3-1 at No. 6 in Big West play.
Hawai’i head coach Jun Hernandez is The Big West Coach of the Year. It is the third time that the 18th year head coach has won the award, previously earning the acclaim in 2017 and 2018. Hernandez guided the Rainbow Wahine to a 14-7 overall record, going 8-1 in conference play to capture The Big West’s regular season title. Hawai’i won The Big West Women’s Tennis Championship as the top seed, defeating No. 8 seed UC Irvine 4-0 in the quarterfinals, No. 4 seed Long Beach State 4-0 in the semifinals and No. 2 seed Cal Poly 4-2 in the final. The Rainbow Wahine earned the league’s automatic qualifier and will participate in the upcoming NCAA Women’s Tennis Team Championship.
Seven singles players from five schools made the All-Big West First Team. Joining Honer on the list is Cal Poly graduate student Kim Bhunu (10-9, 7-2 BW), UC Davis senior Yana Gurevich (10-8, 4-2 BW), Hawai’i sophomore Nikola Homolkova (9-5, 5-0 BW), Cal State Fullerton junior Zoe Olmos (11-5, 5-3 BW), UC Santa Barbara junior Camille Kiss (11-3, 8-1 BW) and Hawai’i sophomore Ana Vilcek (13-4, 4-2 BW).
Doubles pairs on the first team alongside Honer and Reuter are CSUN’s Jolene Coetzee and Angela Ho (12-5, 4-0 BW), Long Beach State’s Justine Dondonay and Sheena Masuda (8-5, 5-1 BW) and Gurevich and Arianna Stavropoulos of UC Davis (13-3, 6-0 BW).
Singles players on the second team are Cal State Fullerton junior Natalie Duffy, Long Beach State junior Sarah Medik, UC Davis sophomore Stavropoulos, Hawai’i senior Satsuki Takamura, CSUN senior Sasha Turchak and CSUN redshirt sophomore Yuliia Zhytelna. The doubles pairs that made the second team are Cal Poly’s Bhunu and Kennedy Buntrock, Long Beach State’s Rhona Cook and Peppi Ramstedt, Cal Poly’s Delanie Dunkle and Peyton Dunkle, and Hawai’i’s Klara Novakova and Rita Pinto.
| 2023 All-Big West First Team
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| Student-Athlete |
Year |
Institution |
Hometown |
| Kim Bhunu |
Gr. |
Cal Poly |
Harare, Zimbabwe |
| Yana Gurevich |
Sr. |
UC Davis |
Los Gatos, Calif. |
| Nikola Homolkova |
So. |
Hawai’i |
Pelhrimov, Czech Republic |
| Amelia Honer |
So. |
UC Santa Barbara |
Newtown, Pa. |
| Camille Kiss |
Jr. |
UC Santa Barbara |
Reldands, Calif. |
| Zoe Olmos |
Jr. |
Cal State Fullerton |
Fremont, Calif. |
| Ana Vilcek |
So. |
Hawai’i |
Pancevo, Serbia |
| Jolene Coetzee & Angela Ho |
Gr. & Fr. |
CSUN |
Taichung City, Taiwan & San Francisco, Calif. |
| Justine Dondonay & Sheena Masuda |
Jr. & So. |
Long Beach State |
Santa Clarita, Calif. & Hong Kong, China |
| Yana Gurevich & Arianna Stavropoulos |
Sr. & So. |
UC Davis |
Los Gatos, Calif. & Sierra Madre, Calif. |
| Amelia Honer & Kira Reuter |
So. & Jr. |
UC Santa Barbara |
Newtown, Pa. & Cambridge, England |
| 2023 All-Big West Second Team |
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| Student-Athlete |
Year |
Institution |
Hometown |
| Natalie Duffy |
Jr. |
Cal State Fullerton |
Hemet, Calif. |
| Sarah Medik |
Jr. |
Long Beach State |
Dornbirn, Austria |
| Arianna Stavropoulos |
So. |
UC Davis |
Sierra Madre, Calif. |
| Satsuki Takamura |
Sr. |
Hawai’i |
Saitama, Japan |
| Sasha Turchak |
Sr. |
CSUN |
Berkeley, Calif. |
| Yuliia Zhytelna |
R-So. |
CSUN |
Kiev, Ukraine |
| Kim Bhunu & Kennedy Buntrock |
Gr. & Fr. |
Cal Poly |
Harare, Zimbabwe & Henderson, Nev. |
| Rhona Cook & Peppi Ramstedt |
Jr. & So. |
Long Beach State |
Chester, U.K. & Helsinki, Finland |
| Delanie Dunkle & Peyton Dunkle |
R-Jr. & So. |
Cal Poly |
Arroyo Grande, Calif. & Arroyo Grande, Calif. |
| Marta Gonzalez Ballbe & Camille Kiss |
Sr. & Jr. |
UC Santa Barbara |
Madrid, Spain & Redlands, Calif. |
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| Honorable Mention Singles: Jolene Coetzee (CSUN), Rhona Cook (Long Beach State), Peyton Dunkle (Cal Poly), Alexandra Ozerets (Cal Poly), Peppi Ramstedt (Long Beach State), Jenna Schlatter (UC Irvine) |
| Honorable Mention Doubles: Natalie Duffy & Camila Garcia (Cal State Fullerton), Sasha Turchak & Yuliia Zhytelna (CSUN), Nikola Homolkova & Ana Vilcek (Hawai’i), Klara Novakova & Rita Pinto (Hawai’i) |