IRVING, Texas – UCF junior Valeriya Zeleva, who led the Knights to their second consecutive American Athletic Conference title and a national seed in the NCAA Championship, has been unanimously chosen as The American’s 2021 Women’s Tennis Player of the Year by the league’s head coaches.
 
Memphis’ Sophie Abrams, who earned a national top-75 singles ranking in her first season, was named The American’s Freshman of the Year. UCF head coach Bryan Koniecko was chosen by his counterparts as The American Coach of the Year for the third consecutive season.
 
Zeleva, who hails from Moscow, was named as The American’s Player of the Year for the second consecutive season as she enters the NCAA tournament as the conference’s highest-ranked singles player (No. 22 as of May 5). She was ranked as high as No. 17 in the April 28 Oracle/ITA rankings, marking the highest individual rank by a UCF player in program history. Zeleva has won 12 consecutive matches has gone 12-2 on the season and is 7-2 against nationally ranked opponents. She earned The American’s automatic bid to the NCAA Singles Championships.
 
Abrams, a native of Germantown, Tennessee, played in the No. 1 singles position for Memphis and amassed an 11-7 dual match record as she finished the season ranked No. 75 in the Oracle/ITA rankings. She is the first Memphis player to be named as The American’s Freshman of the Year.
 
Koniecko was named as The American Coach of the Year after he led the Knights to a third consecutive NCAA tournament and a second consecutive American Athletic Conference title. Ranked No. 9 nationally in the May 5 Oracle/ITA rankings, UCF takes an 18-4 record into the tournament, including a 13-0 mark at home and six wins against nationally ranked opponents.
 
Zeleva and Abrams were among the six players who were unanimously selected to The American’s all-conference team. They joined UCF’s Rebeka Stolmar, SMU’s Hadley Doyle and Jackie Nylander, and Tulsa’s Martina Okalova as unanimous choices by the head coaches. Stolmar and Okalova earned their third consecutive all-conference nods, while Zeleva and UCF teammate Ksenia Kuznetsova were both repeat selections from 2019.
 
 
2021 AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE WOMEN’S TENNIS POSTSEASON HONORS
 
Player of the Year
Valeriya Zeleva, Jr., UCF *
 
Freshman of the Year
Sophie Abrams, Memphis
 
Coach of the Year
Bryan Koniecko, UCF
 
All-Conference Team
Ksenia Kuznetsova, Jr., UCF
Evgenyia Levashova, Jr., UCF
Rebeka Stolmar, Sr., UCF *
Valeriya Zeleva, Jr., UCF *
Sophie Abrams, Fr., Memphis *
Grace Schumacher, Fr., USF
Hadley Doyle, So., SMU *
Jackie Nylander, So., SMU *
Mackenzie Clarke, So., Tulane
Laia Conde Monfort, So., Tulsa
Martina Okalova, Gr., Tulsa *
Vera Ploner, Gr., Tulsa
 
* unanimous selection