FRISCO, Texas –
Laurie Barendse earned Southland Women's Tennis Student-Athlete of the Year honors and five New Orleans Privateer men and women made the All-Academic teams which were announced on Wednesday.
Barendse became the fourth Privateer in the last five years to earn the Student-Athlete of the Year award after carrying a 3.87 GPA as a Business Management major. On the court, Barendse earned Second Team All-Southland honors in singles and doubles. She finished with a combined record of 21-5 this spring.
Barendse joins Ank Vullings (2020), Johannes Klein (2021) and
Marcel Volz (2022) as recipients of the award.
Tristanne Dechoux joined Barendse on the Southland Women's All-Academic Team. The senior Marketing major carried a 3.808 GPA and earned her degree this month. Dechoux won 16 matches between singles and doubles this season and ended the year by collecting wins in four of the last five regular season singles matches.
On the men's side, three Privateers earned All-Academic recognition.
Marcel Volz was on the First Team while
Luke Joujan and
Matthew Armbruster made the Second Team.
Volz was the Southland Player of the Year in 2024 after going 3-1 against Southland opponents and 8-6 overall in singles against a rugged schedule. Volz is a 4.0 student in a graduate program for Computer Science. He has won Southland Player of the Year twice and Southland Newcomer of the Year in his Privateer career.
Joujan earned Second Team All-Academic honors after earning the same distinction on court in doubles. The senior from Hamburg, Germany graduated with a 3.941 GPA in Business Administration. On court, Joujan had eight singles wins including two against Tulane.
Armbruster rounded out the list. The Biological Sciences major has a perfect 4.0 GPA and earned 10 wins this season. He also earned Second Team All-Southland honors in doubles at flight three. In singles, Armbruster played exclusively at flight three and had win as part of the Privateers' victory over Bryant in the opening round of the Southland Tournament.
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