The 2020 Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) final rankings and player awards were announced during a virtual ceremony earlier in the week.

For the second straight year, both the men and women were recognized with Community Service & Outreach Team of the Year awards. The award was created to spotlight all the great work that coaches and student-athletes do for their communities on an annual basis, and this year the Tritons were once again the best in the country at it.

"Our program gets a great sense of pride doing community work here in Fort Dodge and our surrounding service area," said Iowa Central Head Tennis Coach Jerry Thor. "Serving others is ultimately what leadership is all about. And while giving back is important, it also gives us so much in return by helping our players become better teammates, better family members, and better citizens."

Iowa Central women's tennis player Sofia Andrade was named one of four recipients nationally to receive the NJCAA Region Rookie of the Year Award. Andrade left no doubt in her Fall debut this year, teaming with Juliana Vidal to win the doubles consolation title at the ITA Central Region Championships. She led the way in the Spring season at #1 singles and #1 doubles before the COVID-19 pandemic cut the season short.

The ITA, NJCAA, and ICCAC also showered the Tritons with a program-record 30 student-athletes receiving academic awards. Representing Iowa Central Tennis on the NJCAA All-Academic Team are Arthur Calandre, Precious Chukwuma, Sacha Colomban, Aaron Fahey, Hunter Gerhardt, Juan Gomez, Juan Navarrete, Filip Petrovic, Emma Slade, Rachel Slade, Rebecca Van Der Lee, Juliana Vidal, Koffi Yao, and Marcos Yoem Del Grossi. The Tritons also had 14 named ITA Scholar-Athletes, the most of any team at any level in the nation this year.

In order to earn ITA Scholar-Athlete status a player must meet the following criteria: 1.) be a varsity letter winner, 2.) have a grade point average of at least 3.50 (on a 4.00 scale) for the current academic year, and 3.) have been enrolled at their present school for at least 2 semesters (including freshman through senior year).

The achievements in the classroom combined with strong performance on the tennis courts, where Men's Tennis (5-4) was #12 and Women's Tennis (6-3) finished #15 in the final NJCAA DI poll.

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