Notre Dame Fighting Irish - Official Athletics Website

Alicia Salas Wins Two Regional Awards, Including Senior Player Of The Year

May 21, 2004

Notre Dame senior co-captain Alicia Salas (Englewood, Colo./Cherry Creek H.S.) was one of just two players in the country to win multiple regional awards when the Intercollegiate Tennis Association honors were announced earlier this week. Salas was named the Midwest Region’s ITA Senior Player of the Year, while also winning the ITA/Cissie Leary Sportsmanship Award.

The former honor recognizes the top senior in the region, which includes all but one (Penn State) of the Big Ten teams, as well as various other squads from Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa. The latter accolade recognizes a player who displays inspiring dedication and commitment to her team, which has enhanced her team’s performance and exemplified the spirit of college tennis.

Salas and the winners from each of the other seven regions are now eligible for the national awards, which will be presented this Sunday, May 23 in Athens, Ga.

After not being in Notre Dame’s lineup as a freshman, Salas has become 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 stands 24-17, having defeated 15 ranked opponents, including six 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.

Salas was the runner-up in last fall’s ITA Midwest Championships and was ranked second in the region heading into the spring. Throughout her career, Salas was 47-15 (.758) against Midwest Region opponents in singles and 41-14 (.745) in doubles. In 2003-04, she was 13-4 against the region in singles, with three losses coming to Northwestern sophomore Cristelle Grier, currently ranked third in the nation. She was 12-3 in doubles against Midwest teams.

She is just the fourth Irish player ever 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 84-38 (.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.

Salas is the third Notre Dame student-athlete (all since 1996) to be named the Midwest Region’s top senior player, joining Jennifer Hall (’96) and current assistant coach Michelle Dasso (’01), who also won the national honor. Salas joins Kelly Zalinski (’00) as Notre Dame winners of the Cissie Leary Award.

The other regional Senior Players of the Year were Old Dominion’s Nataly Cahana, Duke’s Amanda Johnson, Florida State’s Anca Dumitrescu, Oklahoma’s Anda Perianu, Texas A&M’s Jessica Roland, California’s Raquel Kops-Jones, and San Diego State’s Katalina Romero.

Other regional recipients of the Cissie Leary award were Harvard’s Susanna Lingman, Furman’s Mary Neill Hagood, Miami’s Megan Bradley, BYU’s Lu Oswald, Rice’s Karen Chao, California’s Jody Scheldt, and Arizona State’s Cindy Sureephong.

Salas and Johnson were the only players to win two awards, as the Blue Devil was both the Senior Player of the Year and the winner of the ITA/Arthur Ashe Jr. Award for Leadership and Sportsmanship in the Southeast Region.