Sept. 21, 2010

WACO, Texas - After a successful season on the courts that included a run to the 2010 NCAA Championship quarterfinals, the Baylor men's tennis team was recently named an ITA All-Academic team by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.

It is the third straight season that Baylor has been listed among the top academic teams in the nation as only programs with a cumulative team grade-point average of 3.20 or above (on a 4.00 scale) are eligible for the honor.

"I am proud of the guys for focusing on their academics," head coach Matt Knoll said. "I think this really shows the professionalism and the work ethic of our guys. I think the culture of our team supports guys making their school a priority and that is part of the reason our guys have been so successful after they have left here."

This year's list includes 52 Division I men's programs, but Baylor is the only Big 12 school on the list. The Bears were one of only three schools, along with Stanford and Tennessee, to be named an All-Academic team and be ranked in the top 15 of the final ITA rankings.

Besides garnering team recognition, the ITA named six Baylor men's tennis student-athletes as ITA Scholar-Athletes. Seniors Attila Bucko and Dominik Mueller, junior Jordan Rux, sophomores Julian Bley, Chris Gordon and Maros Horny met the three requirements necessary to be honored. It is the third consecutive year that Mueller was recognized and the second straight year that Rux has been honored after Baylor placed five athletes on the 2009 list.

The students had to be a varsity letterwinner, had to have a grade point average of at least 3.50 (on a 4.00 scale) for the current academic year and had to have been enrolled at their present school for at least two semesters (including freshman through senior year).

In all, the Big 12 Conference had 10 student-athletes named Scholar-Athletes with Texas Tech and Oklahoma State each having two athletes make the list along with the six from Baylor.

For its efforts in the classroom, the men's tennis team was awarded its first-ever President's Cup by the university in May, in recognition of the team's cumulative 3.41 GPA, which was the highest for any Baylor program this year.