Aug. 11, 2006

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - For the fourth time in the past five seasons, the University of Memphis men's tennis team was named an All-Academic Team by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA). In addition to the team honor, three Tigers were named ITA Scholar-Athletes, led by two-time honoree Alex Jago.

In order for a team to be named an ITA All-Academic Team, the entire team GPA must be 3.2 or higher. The Tigers were one of just 35 men's teams in the NCAA Division I to post a team GPA of 3.2 or higher, and were the only C-USA men's program on the list. Other Mid-South area schools on the list were UALR, Belmont, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt.

Senior Alex Jago led the Tigers with three honorees on the Scholar Athlete list. Individual student-athletes can earn the individual award by posting a GPA of 3.5 or higher during the current academic year and must be a varsity letterwinner. Jago, who first won the award last season, was part of a doubles tandem that finished the fall season ranked No. 8 in the country before Jago was diagnosed with a season-ending wrist injury. He was joined on the list by former teammates Matt Brewer and Michael Jetter. Jago is just the third-ever Tiger to earn two-time honors from the ITA, joining former Tigers Andrew Olswing and Lee Taylor Walker on the two-time winner list.

Memphis posted the conference's highest team GPA in Conference USA it was announced last week. For posting a GPA of 3.405, the Tigers were awarded a Conference USA Sports Academic Award.

ITA All-Academic Teams
Arizona State
UALR
Belmont
Boise State
Coastal Carolina
Cornell
Creighton
Dartmouth
Denver
Duke
Elon
Fairleigh Dickinson
Gardner-Webb
Iowa
James Madison
Lafayette College
Manhattan College
Marist College
Memphis
Mississippi State
UNLV
New Mexico State
Oklahoma
University of the Pacific
Princeton
Radford
South Carolina
Stanford
Stony Brook
UT-Pan American
Vanderbilt
VCU
University of Washington
Western Michigan
Winthrop
Yale