For the second straight year, Illinois State tennis star Liina Suurvarik has been elected to the CoSIDA All-District V Womens At-Large academic team. Suurvarik is one of 10 players representing NCAA Division I sports from institutions in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Minnesota who will be on the national ballot for Academic All-America honors in mid-June.
With 133 career singles wins and 117 career doubles triumphs, the native of Tallin, Estonia completed her Illinois State playing career as the winningest Redbird tennis player in history.
The 2003 Illinois State student-athlete of the year is one of four tennis players to make the squad from a ballot with more than 40 candidates. Suurvarik was one of four tennis players elected, along with athletes from swimming and diving, golf, lacrosse, ice hockey and gymnastics. Nine of the 10 are seniors and all have cumulative grade point averages above 3.8 on a 4.0 scale.
Suurvarik was a four-time Missouri Valley Conference singles champion at No. 1 and led coach Chris Hoovers Redbird teams to three league titles in four seasons.
Hoover believes Suurvarik deserves to be considered with the best among student-athletes.
Liina has the drive from inside, said Hoover. She has been a great student and a great athlete and is deserving of this kind of recognition. She loves setting goals and having goals and really pushes herself to achieve at a high level.
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