ITA AWARDS
SKILLMAN, N.J. – Augustana women's tennis player
Katie Jesperson collected her second postseason award when the Intercollegiate Tennis Association named her the Central Region player to watch on Thursday afternoon.
Jesperson is coming off a 19-1 season in which she climbed all the way to the No. 2 ranking in the Central Region. Her only two losses came at the hands of a Division Player and a top-five ranked junior college athlete.
A junior from Elk River, Minn. , Jesperson posted a 14-0 record against Division II competition and a perfect 9-0 in NSIC regular season play. The no. 1 singles player helped Augustana to their fourth consecutive NSIC regular season championship and defeated NSIC Senior of the Year, Erin Kappers from Winona State, to give the Vikings their third straight NSIC tournament title.
Jesperson was ranked ninth in the ITA's Central Region rankings before facing Nebraska-Kearney's Vanessa Gunawan, who was ranked second in the same rankings. In Jesperson's final regular-season match, she dispatched the Indonesian import in straight sets, catching the eyes of the Central Region coaches and jumped seven spots to the No. 2 ranking.
In the NCAA Central Region Tournament, Jesperson faced No. 1-ranked Fanni Varga of Southwest Baptist, and despite losing the first set, Jesperson gave the top-ranked player her best.
On one other occasion this season, Varga has allowed an opponent to gain over four games in a set; Jesperson was the second to accomplish that feat against the undefeated No. 1 singles player from SBU in a 7-5 loss. The match went unfinished as the Bobcats defeated the Vikings, but Jesperson performed well enough to warrant her selection as ITA Central Region player to watch.
