FERRIS STATE WOMEN’S TENNIS AWARD WINNERS ANNOUNCED
Senior Barbora Jilkova Garners Most Valuable Player Award Recognition
 | Senior captain Barbora Jilkova was named FSU's 2003-04 Most Valuable Player Award recipient |
Senior captain Barbora Jilkova (Prague, Czech Republic/Gymnazium Holesovice) of the 2003-04 Ferris State University women’s tennis team was named the squad’s Most Valuable Player at the school’s annual awards ceremony held recently (April 3) in conjunction with FSU's Professional Tennis Management (PTM) Program Spring Banquet at the Holiday Inn Hotel and Conference Center in Big Rapids, Mich.
A four-time (1999-03) first-team All-Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) honoree, Jilkova has compiled a 16-9 overall singles record and a 24-7 doubles mark to date this campaign. The three-time regional doubles champion (2000-01 and 2003) presently ranks fourth on both the school's career singles and doubles victory lists with a 81-33 (.711) singles mark and a 99-34 (.744) doubles ledger. Jilkova previously received the 2003 GLIAC Player of the Year Award last fall after leading FSU to a league runner-up finish during the regular season.
Jilkova, a 2001-02 Intercollegiate Tennis Association Division II Doubles All-America performer, teamed with sophomore Laura Schaefer (St. Cloud, Minn./Apollo) to claim the 2003 ITA Great Lakes Region Doubles Championship in Indianapolis, Ind. (9/21). The duo then placed seventh overall in the 2003 ITA National Small College Championships (10/16-19) at Corpus Christi, Texas.
One of only two All-America performers in school history, Jilkova paired with Jennifer Garvey (1998-02) and compiled Ferris’ third-best single-season doubles record (29-4) along with the program’s top single-season doubles victory percentage (.879) during the 2001-02 campaign en route to a fifth-place finish at the 2001 ITA National Small College Tennis Championships (10/18) in Plano, Texas. The 5-9 Jilkova concluded her four-year GLIAC career with a combined 85-10 (.895) league regular-season singles and doubles record.
Fourth-year FSU head coach Dave Ramos also presented the team’s Most Improved Player Award to junior Nicole Berger (Des Moines, Iowa/Dowling). The 5-6 Berger has recorded a 2-2 singles mark at the number five flight and a 1-3 record at the
number six singles spot along with a 9-4 (.693) overall doubles performance to date this campaign. Berger, who is midst her initial season at Ferris State, previously was a three-time prep state qualifier and played the number three doubles position last season for Northwest Missouri State University, which reached the third round of the 2003 NCAA-II Championships.
Ferris, which is ranked 23rd in the latest (April 7) Intercollegiate Tennis Association Division II National Poll, currently is 13-7 overall this season. FSU, which has presently advanced to the NCAA-II Regional Tournament eight consecutive years (1996-03), has claimed the regional title and earned a bid to the NCAA-II Championships three of the past five seasons to date. The Bulldogs, who have currently won 183 of their last 187 league regular-season matches, placed second overall at the 2003 GLIAC Championships (Oct. 24-25) held at the Midland (Mich.) Community Tennis Center.
Ferris is slated to host Indianapolis this Saturday (April 17) in a 3 p.m. (EDT) non-league encounter at the FSU Racquet and Fitness Center in Big Rapids, Mich.
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