2024 ITA ALL-AMERICANS
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Big West proudly boasts Amelia Honer of UC Santa Barbara as the lone women's tennis All-American named by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) after its honorees were unveiled this week.
The prestigious All-American award is given to student-athletes who earn a top 16 seed in the NCAA Singles Championship, advance to the round of 16 in the NCAA Singles Championship, or finish in the top 20 of the final ITA Singles Rankings.
This is the first All-American award The Big West has had in women’s tennis since 2019 when Petra Melounova of Hawai’i was recognized.
This season, Honer embarked on a historic campaign that capped off the junior’s stellar regular season with an 18-2 overall singles record at the top-flight. Honer was awarded Big West Player of the Week four times this season, including a three-peat to close the final three weeks of The Big West’s regular season. In total, Honer has received weekly recognition twelve times in a three-year span, ranking one award behind UC Irvine’s Becky Bernhard who has the most in Big West history with 13 overall.
During the 2024 Big West Championship, Honer made work of the competition at the No. 1 spot with a 2-0 individual performance before the Gauchos fell in the semifinal round.
After postseason conference play ended, Honer was named The Big West Player of the Year in back-to-back seasons. The Newtown, Pa. product serves as the first student-athlete in league history to be named Player of the Year in consecutive seasons since Petra Melounova clinched the award three straight times from 2017-19.
In the NCAA Women's Tennis Singles National Championships, Honer re-wrote the record books with two triumphant performances against top-notch competitors. The NCAA run began with a 6-4, 6-0 victory versus No. 23 Julia Andreach of Notre Dame. From there in the Round of 16, Honer punched a ticket to the NCAA Quarterfinal round following a thrilling comeback win over Oklahoma’s No. 37 Julia Garcia Ruiz, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4. The third year Guacho’s run came to a graceful end as Honer could not defeat the nation’s top ranked player, Texas A&M’s Mary Stoiana.
Honer goes down in history to become the first student-athlete in conference and UC Santa Barbara history to advance to Quarterfinal Round of the NCAA Women's Tennis Singles National Championships.