Tennis players named All-Americans
Article By: Clark Leonard
Three University of North Georgia (UNG) tennis players earned All-American honors from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) in 2022. Men's tennis player Joaquin Benoit was an All-American in singles, while the women's duo of Vaishali Jorge and Johanna Lippert received All-American recognition in doubles.
Student-athletes who finish in the top 20 of the final ITA singles rankings are All-Americans, while the All-American status is awarded to doubles teams that finish in the top 10 of the final ITA doubles rankings.
Additionally, UNG had multiple recipients of the Division II ITA regional awards.
Head coach Kent Norsworthy was named the Wilson ITA Women's Coach of the Year for the Southeast Region after leading the Nighthawks to a 15-win season and a fifth consecutive NCAA appearance. The UNG women's tennis team also tied for the regular-season Peach Belt Conference championship.
Additionally, on the women's side, Rafaella Jean Villanueva was selected as the Arthur Ashe Leadership & Sportsmanship recipient while her teammate Jorge was named the ITA Southeast Region Senior Player of the Year.
On the men's side, seniors Zach Waldow and Ryan Gaskin were honored with regional awards. Waldow was selected as the ITA Most Improved Senior while Gaskin earned the region's Senior Player of the Year distinction.
Nighthawks dominant in regional title victory
The UNG men's golf team cruised to the NCAA Division II South/Southeast Regional title to earn a spot in the national championship. Earlier in the week, the UNG women battled to the end in their regional.