Southern Collegiate
Athletic Conference
Sports Release

Austin ● Centre ● Colorado College ● DePauw ● Hendrix ● Millsaps
Oglethorpe ● Rhodes ● Sewanee ● Southwestern ● Trinity

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 15, 2007 / Contact: Dwayne Hanberry, SCAC Associate Commissioner

DEPAUW’S BONDI, WEBELER REPEAT AS
SCAC TENNIS PLAYERS-OF-THE-YEAR
 

SUWANEE, Ga. - In exclusive voting by the head coaches in the league, Liz Bondi and Evan Webeler - both of DePauw University - have been selected the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Tennis Players-of-the-Year for the second straight year. For Bondi, it is the third consecutive year she has won the award.

In that same balloting, Sewanee's Conchie Shackelford was voted the league's Women's Coach-of-the-Year while Tom Cath of DePauw was voted Men's COTY.

Bondi, a senior from Park Ridge, Ill., becomes just the second women’s player to earn back-to-back-to-back Player-of-the-Year honors. Trinity’s Lizzie Yasser won the award three straight years from 2000-2002. A three-time all-American in both singles and doubles, Bondi is 25-1 in singles play and 23-2 in doubles action entering the NCAA Tournament. The 2005 national singles runner-up, Bondi advanced to the quarterfinals in 2003, the semifinals in 2006 and enters NCAA play this season with a 118-9 career singles mark. She was a doubles finalist in both 2003 and 2006 and a quarterfinalist in 2005. Bondi has earned the top singles seed in this year’s NCAA Singles Championship, and she and teammate Amrita Padda were selected as the number one seed for the doubles competition. Earlier this year, Bondi was named the SCAC Women’s Basketball Player-of-the-Year for the second consecutive year, and she remains the only student-athlete in the history of the league to earn POTY honors in two different sports (excluding track and field and cross country).

Webeler, a senior from Cincinnati, Ohio, posted a 23-5 singles record this year and was ranked seventh nationally entering this year’s NCAA Tournament. Webeler has a career singles record of 87-33 and a doubles mark of 74-41, including a 22-8 mark and No. 6 national ranking in 2006-07. Webeler led the DePauw men to their first-ever SCAC conference championship two weeks ago as the eighth-ranked Tigers defeated Trinity, 5-4, in the finals at the 2007 Spring Sports Festival. Webeler, who finished runner-up in the SCAC Player-of-the-Year voting as a sophomore, is just the third men’s tennis player in the history of the league to win back-to-back POTY honors. Brian Bethea (1993 and 1994) and Sloan Rush (2000 and 2001) – both of Trinity – are the previous two players to win consecutive POTY awards.

Shackelford, wrapping up her 21st season, is the most successful coach in Sewanee women's tennis history. Her career record stands at 363-132 (73.3%) after this past weekend’s two NCAA tournament victories sent her fourth-ranked Tigers to the national quarterfinals for the first time since 1999. Shackelford’s Tigers had a streak of 15 straight years with a top 15 national ranking (1988-2002) and the program currently ranks fourth in consecutive trips to the NCAA tournament (14) and sixth in total tournament appearances (19). The SCAC Women’s Coach-of-the-Year award is her second after earning the league’s top honor in the first year that women’s tennis was added to the conference slate in 1992.

Cath was voted SCAC Men’s Tennis Coach-of-the-Year for the second time in three years and the fourth time overall. He was named the ITA Division III Men’s National Coach-of-the-Year in both 1995 and 2005. Cath has compiled a 333-154 match record in 22 years at DePauw, including a school-record 22 wins this season, and once again led the Tigers to the NCAA Tournament. This year’s DePauw squad advanced to the national quarterfinals for the second straight year and fourth time in school history.