April 28, 2007

Indianapolis, Ind.- The UIC women's tennis team resumed its annual tradition of piling up accolades at the Horizon League Championship Banquet on Friday night, as senior Callan Smith (Leawood, Kan./Pembroke Hill) was named the 2007 Horizon League Player of the Year and a conference-best three Flames earned All-Horizon League First Team honors.

UIC head coach Shannon Tully also retained her spot as the league's best with her third consecutive Horizon League Coach of the Year award and fourth overall after guiding the Flames to another perfect league campaign.

Smith went 5-1 against league foes at the No. 1 singles spot and 5-1 at the No. 1 doubles position. The Leawood, Kansas native has taken on the opposition's top singles player for most of her two seasons at UIC.

Joining Smith on the All-Horizon League First Team were UIC juniors Grace Gill-Morlis (Lima, Peru/Villa Maria) and Lubica Nadasska (Bratislava, Slovakia/Gymnasium Zitarska).

Gill-Morlis continued her dominant stretch of Horizon League singles play by going 7-0 in both singles and doubles conference contests. The third-year UIC standout played her first full season at No. 3 singles.

Nadasska had a strong campaign in her first year with the Flames, going 6-1 in Horizon League singles competition, mostly at the No. 2 slot.

Tully earned the nod as the league's top coach for the third straight year after guiding the Flames to an unblemished 7-0 league record.

UIC begins defense of its Horizon League title with a first-round league tournament match against Wright State on Saturday morning in Indianapolis.