May 20, 2014

NOTRE DAME, Ind. — Just a few weeks ago, the University of Notre Dame recognized senior Greg Andrews with two of the most prestigious awards given to Irish student-athletes: the Byron V. Kanaley Award and the Francis Patrick O’Connor Award. But Andrews’ leadership and sportsmanship is evident to more than just the Notre Dame community, as today the Intercollegiate Tennis Association honored the senior with the National ITA/Arthur Ashe, Jr. Sportsmanship & Leadership Award.

The ITA/Arthur Ashe Jr. National Leadership and Sportsmanship Awards are given annually to collegiate students who have shown great achievements on and off the court. A select group of accomplished student-athletes have been honored in this way since 1982. Notre Dame has only had two previous recipients of the award: Chuck Coleman in 1993 and Mike Sprouse in 1995.

“What an amazing honor for Greg,” says Irish men’s tennis head coach Ryan Sachire. “The Arthur Ashe award is perhaps the most prestigious recognition in our sport because it encapsulates every aspect of being a student-athlete. Greg has done so many amazing things at Notre Dame, and his presence has positively affected his teammates, and our program in general, in so many ways. This award is a tribute to four years of Greg’s leadership, service to others, success in the classroom and his elite play on the court. The impact that Greg has made within our program cannot be measured, but I am extremely happy that it is being recognized with this honor.”

As Sachire explains, the award takes into account a player’s tennis accomplishments, scholastic achievements and extracurricular endeavors, and recognizes players who excelled on and off the court as Ashe did during his life. Sportsmanship, leadership and character are important criteria, as is giving back to the community.

“Coach Sachire has always stressed sportsmanship and leadership to our team,” Andrews says. “He taught us that these attributes are what will help us be successful at the highest levels. I have done my best to put these into practice during my career at Notre Dame, and I am truly honored to just have been nominated with such an impressive group of candidates.”

Andrews is currently one of only nine players, man or woman, to be ranked in the top 25 in the country in both the ITA National Singles and Doubles Rankings (No. 24 in singles nationally and 18 in doubles). He’s been a two-time captain for Notre Dame, and has led this year’s team back into the Top 15 for the first time in seven years. He’s done all of this while maintaining a 3.85 GPA and earning 1st Team Academic All-American honors last season, one of only two tennis players to achieve this status. In all, he’s accumulated over 200 career victories.

He graduated with honors this past weekend and will now go on to complete his Masters of Science in Accounting at Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business next year.

As stated in the ITA release, “He is one of the fairest sportsmen in college tennis, representing himself, Notre Dame and college tennis in a first-class manner.”

Andrews continues on in the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships this week with a singles match in the first round against Patrick Pradella of Baylor tomorrow (May 21) at 3:30 p.m. before he and partner sophomore Alex Lawson face off against Hernus Pieters and Ben Wagland of Georgia on Thursday.

–Lauren Chval, Media Relations Assistant

–ND–