May 24, 2004
Notre Dame senior co-captain Alicia Salas (Englewood, Colo./Cherry Creek H.S.) was named the national winner of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association/Cissie Leary Sportsmanship Award when the ITA announced its national awards Sunday night in Athens, Ga. She is the first Irish player to receive the honor, which recognizes a player who displays inspiring dedication and commitment to her team that has enhanced her team’s performance and exemplified the spirit of college tennis.
Last week Salas won the Cissie Leary Award and the Senior Player of the Year honor for the Midwest Region, which made her eligible, along with the other seven regional recipients, for the national accolades. California’s Raquel Kops-Jones, the current #1 player in collegiate tennis, was the national winner of the senior-player-of-the-year award.
It is the fourth time a Notre Dame student-athlete has been honored with a national award by the ITA. Jennifer Hall was named the Penn National Player to Watch in 1996, while current assistant coach Michelle Dasso was honored as the National Senior Player of the Year in 2001, while also garnering the Gladys Heldman Award, which is presented to the nation’s top senior, based on athletic, academic, sportsmanship, and community service accomplishments.
After not being in Notre Dame’s lineup as a freshman, Salas turned into one of the top singles players in the country as a senior. Currently ranked 22nd after being a career-high 10th earlier this spring, she was 24-17, with 15 victories over ranked opponents, including six vs. top-30 players. She earned a bid to the NCAA Singles Championship for the second consecutive season and was voted team MVP by her teammates for the second time in three years. A foot injury forced Salas to withdraw from this week’s NCAA singles event.
She is just the fourth Irish player to qualify for every leg of the collegiate grand slam in a single season and is the sixth Notre Dame competitor to earn multiple berths to the NCAA singles tournament. Salas also is one of only four Irish players to be listed in the national top 10 in singles since Notre Dame moved up to the Division I level in 1985-86.
Salas, who has been named to the BIG EAST Championship all-tournament team in singles in both of the inaugural years of the distinction (while also copping doubles honors in ’03), has a career 95-42 (.691) record in singles and 83-38 (.689) mark in doubles. She is 12th on the Irish career singles victories list.
A two-time recipient of the Notre Dame Club of St. Joseph Valley Knute Rockne Student-Athlete Award as the team’s top academic performer, Salas is a nominee for the CoSIDA Academic All-America at-large program. Salas, who carries a 3.630 cumulative grade-point average as a preprofessional studies/anthropology major, was a recipient of the Byron V. Kanaley Award last month, the most prestigious honor presented to Notre Dame student-athletes, given to senior monogram athletes who have been most exemplary as both students and leaders.
Salas also was one of 10 players selected by the ITA to represent the United States on the 2004 American Express Collegiate All-Star Team in two exhibition team matches in China June 13-21.