Rebel Netters Earn Top Distinction In The Classroom

OXFORD, Miss. . The Ole Miss men’s tennis team continued its tradition of excellence in the classroom, earning the ITA All-Academic Team Award, as the Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced its yearly academic awards Thursday.

This award honors teams with outstanding academic achievements, requiring a minimum overall 3.2 grade point average to be considered.

The Rebels are the only team in Division I men’s tennis to finish the 2007 season ranked among the top 10 nationally and one of only two teams in the top 20 (Duke being the other) to earn this distinction.

“The University under Chancellor Dr. Robert Khayat and the athletic department under Pete Boone place a high priority on academics,” head coach Billy Chadwick said.  “We are very proud of our guys for excelling not only on the court, but leading the way in the classroom.”

This past season on the court, the Rebels won their sixth consecutive SEC West title, finished second overall in the conference standings behind NCAA Champion Georgia, hosted their seventh straight NCAA Regional and ended the year ranked No. 7 in the nation.

Since 2003, the Rebels have finished no lower than second in the overall SEC standings, (a feat no other league school can claim), while capturing back-to-back overall conference crowns in 2004 and 2005.  During this time, the Rebels have won the Chancellor’s Cup four years in a row as the Ole Miss men’s varsity team with the highest cumulative GPA.

The ITA also handed out individual academic honors, as upcoming seniors Erling Tveit, Bram ten Berge and Matthias Wellermann were named ITA Scholar-Athletes. 

Tveit is one of only six players in Division I men’s tennis to earn All-America honors on the court and be named an ITA Scholar-Athlete for the 2007 season. In addition he is one of only two players from the SEC to accomplish this feat. Tveit is a Managerial Finance major

Bram ten Berge earned the honor for the third time in as many years.  He boasts a 3.96 GPA in the Classics.  He was the 2006 SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

Wellermann, who owns a 3.88 GPA in Accountancy, received the honor for the first time in his career.  He joined Tveit and ten Berge as Rebels to post a perfect 4.0 GPA for the past spring.

The University of Mississippi holds the distinction as the only school in the conference with both its men’s and women’s tennis programs to be honored with the prestigious ITA All-Academic Team Award.         

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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