FRISCO, Texas – New Orleans senior
Hossam Meligy was named Southland Conference Men's Tennis Student-Athlete of the Year and was one of a league-leading three Privateers to receive all-academic recognition, the conference announced Thursday.
Meligy led UNO to a runner-up finish in the Southland Conference Men's Tennis Championship while collecting 11 wins in singles action. The Privateers, a Southland affiliate who will join the conference in all sports starting July, went 4-1 in conference play and reached a league championship match for the first time since 2003.
A native of Cairo, Egypt, Meligy is the first Privateer to notch the award accumulating a 3.57 grade-point average while majoring in civil engineering.
Meligy claimed all-conference first-team doubles' recognition after winning the No. 1 doubles championship. An Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) All-American in 2012, Meligy reached the doubles championship at the New Orleans Big Easy Classic after upsetting nationally-ranked tandems from Tulane and South Alabama. Meligy was also an all-conference second team pick in singles'.
“I do not think there could have been anyone more deserving of this recognition than Hossam this year,” said UNO head tennis coach
Burzis Kanga. “He excelled playing in the key spots in our lineup including a big victory against Nicholls State in the conference tournament semifinals, one of many highlights for Hossam.”
“Hossam also provided our team leadership skills, a strong ethic and all of these things proved worthwhile in our team's success. You cannot say enough about him and I have no doubt that he has a bright, bright future ahead of him.”
UNO paced the Southland with three all-academic selections while Oral Roberts, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Nicholls State and Texas-Pan American collected two apiece. Lamar earned one selection.
Automatic selections include those who received first-team all-conference honors. This year, the first-team all-academic squad was filled by three automatic selections, leaving three open spots on the first team and all six positions available on the second team.
Meligy was joined on the first-team by teammate and doubles' partner
Ricardo Campos. Lamar's Rob Lee, A&M-Corpus Christi's Matt Westmoreland, Nicholls State senior Damian Despotovski and Oral Roberts junior Parker Allen fill up the rest of the first-team.
Campos received second-team all-conference recognition in singles' play while also being tabbed a first-team all-conference selection in doubles' play with Meligy. The duo was also named Southland Conference champions at the No. 1 court. Off the court, Campos has achieved a 3.20 grade-point average while pursuing a degree in Business Administration.
UNO senior
Abdelrahman Zaki is on the second team, which consists of Nicholls senior Roy Knight, ORU sophomore Nathaniel Avery, Texas-Pan American junior duo of Victor Alves and Ricardo Hopker and A&M-Corpus Christi sophomore Pietro Jordao.
A Business Administration major with a 3.06 grade-point average, Zaki alsoreceived all-Southland recognition for his play on the court alongside doubles' partner
Rui Silva. Zaki and Silva were tabbed Southland Conference champions at the No. 2 doubles' position.
Zaki was also one of five different UNO players to receive Southland Player of the Week recognition during the course of the season alongside Campos,
Vinay Kamineni, Meligy and Silva.
“Our players have exemplified what a strong work ethic can do for you,” said Kanga. “It not only showed in the classroom, it showed on courts.”
“Each of these three seniors is very deserving of honors they have received from the Southland, but more importantly, we can expect good things from all three in the future.”
The Southland Conference awards committee, which consists of one administrator from each of the 10 member universities, voted for the student-athlete of the year. The Southland student-athlete of the year is presented to the one student-athlete who achieves excellence in both academics and athletics.
All nominees shall have earned at least a 3.2 GPA on a 4.0 scale, and demonstrated athletics achievement for a least two years at the nominating institution.
The all-academic teams are voted on by the head coaches, sports information directors and academic/compliance administrators from each Southland Conference university. Student-athletes must possess a 3.0 cumulative GPA, have completed one full academic year the nominating institution and participated in at least 50 percent of the team's competition to qualify for the all-academic squad.
UNO anticipates receiving word later this summer on the status of its men's and women's tennis teams as it relates to receiving ITA Scholar-Athlete squad recognition.
The Privateer squads will open their fall campaign in September before hosting the 2
nd Annual Big Easy Classic in mid-October at the University Tnenis Center.
2013 Southland Conference Men's Tennis All-Academic First Team
Name University Cl. Hometown GPA Major
Hossam Meligy 1^ New Orleans Sr. Cairo, Egypt 3.57 Civil Engineering
Ricardo Campos1 New Orleans Sr. Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico3.20 Business Admin.
Rob Lee
1 Lamar Sr. Brighton, England 3.17 Management
Matt Westmoreland
2 TAMU-CC Jr. Oahu, Hawaii 3.32 Kinesiology
Damian Despotovski Nicholls State Sr. Skopje, Macedonia 3.22 Finance
Parker Allen Oral Roberts Jr. Hot Springs, Ark. 3.93 Management
2013 Southland Conference Men's Tennis All-Academic Second Team
Name University Cl. Hometown GPA Major
Roy Knight Nicholls State Sr. Bodmin, England 3.20 Marketing
Nathaniel Avery Oral Roberts So. Edmond, Okla. 3.97 Finance
Victor Alves UTPA Jr. San Paulo, Brazil 3.45 Marketing
Ricardo Hopker UTPA Jr. Curitiba, Brazil 3.76 Mech. Engineering
Abdelrahman Zaki New Orleans Sr. Cairo, Egypt 3.06 Business Admin.
Pietro Jordao TAMU-CC So. Sao Paulo, Brazil 3.14 Finance
^ 2013 Southland Men's Tennis Student-Athlete of the Year
1 First-Team All-Conference
2 Two-time all-academic selection
3 Three-time all-academic selection
