SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Furman’s Julia Adams has been named the 2022 Southern Conference Women’s Tennis Player of the Year, as announced by the league on Wednesday. Paladin teammate Sara Snyder was named the SoCon Freshman of the Year, while ETSU’s Ricky Rojas was named the league’s Coach of the Year for the second straight season. Western Carolina’s Jordyn King earned the Sportsmanship Award.

Postseason balloting was conducted by the league’s eight head coaches, who were not allowed to vote for their own student-athletes.
 
Adams earns Furman’s sixth straight Player of the Year award and 20th overall. The senior from Knoxville, Tennessee, has gone 17-5 at No. 1 singles this season, including a 7-0 mark in SoCon play, and is ranked No. 46 nationally. She enters this weekend’s SoCon Women’s Tennis Championship having won 11 straight singles matches. In doubles play, she and Ellie Schoppe have teamed to go 16-4, including a 13-4 mark at No. 1, a 3-0 record at No. 2 and a 6-0 mark in league action. The duo, which is ranked No. 38 nationally, has won nine straight coming into the SoCon tournament. Adams, who earned four SoCon Player of the Week citations this season and was the SoCon Player of the Month in March, earned first-team All-SoCon honors in both singles and doubles play.
 
Furman’s Snyder is Furman’s 13th SoCon Freshman of the Year. She is 16-6 in singles play this season, posting a 10-6 record at No. 4, a 5-0 mark at No. 3 and a 1-0 record at No. 2. Snyder, who was ranked as high as No. 65 nationally this season, earned second-team All-SoCon honors at No. 3 singles in addition to claiming All-Freshman honors. The rookie from San Juan, Puerto Rico, is a combined 10-6 in doubles play with three different partners. She and Jess Dawson have teamed to go 9-4 together, including an 8-4 record at No. 3 and a 6-1 mark in SoCon play.
 
Rojas has led ETSU to a 15-8 overall mark and a 6-1 SoCon record. He has the Bucs ranked No. 74 nationally and led the squad to a win over No. 53 Charlotte on April 1. The Bucs’ lone league loss came to Furman in the regular-season finale for both squads. Rojas directs a squad that put a pair of players on the All-SoCon first team in Laylo Bakhodirova and Alejandra Morales and saw Emilia Alfaro earn second-team honors at No. 4. The Bucs’ Nos. 2 and 3 doubles squads also earned second-team all-conference honors, bringing the total of all-conference selections on the roster to six. Rojas’s Coach of the Year selection is the third for an ETSU coach in program history.
 
Western Carolina’s King is 6-5 in singles play this season, having played at every flight but No. 1. Prior to this season, the redshirt senior from Worcester, Pennsylvania, had played just one singles match since her freshman year due to injury. King is 11-5 in doubles play with three different partners, including a 10-3 mark with Luzia Obermeier at Nos. 2 and 3. King’s selection marks the sixth time Western Carolina has claimed the Sportsmanship Award.
 
Regular-season SoCon champion Furman, ranked No. 36 nationally, saw Adams and Schoppe earn first-team all-conference honors in both singles and doubles, with Dawson and Ellie Schulson joining Snyder on the second team in singles.
 
Chattanooga’s Nicole Abel also earned first-team honors in singles and in doubles with partner Emma Van Hee. Samford’s Rouxanne Janse van Rensburg rounds out the first-team singles selections and Wofford duo Lilie Steryous and Liz Massie are the remaining first-team doubles squad.
 
The SoCon Women’s Tennis Championship begins Thursday at 8:30 a.m. at the Champions Club in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with all eight league teams vying for the title.
 
2022 Southern Conference Player of the Year
Julia Adams, Sr., Furman
 
2022 Southern Conference Freshman of the Year
Sara Snyder, Furman
 
2022 Southern Conference Coach of the Year
Ricky Rojas, ETSU
 
2022 Southern Conference Sportsmanship Award
Jordyn King, R-Sr., Western Carolina
 
2022 All-Southern Conference Women’s Tennis
First team
Singles
Laylo Bakhodirova, ETSU
Alejandra Morales, ETSU
Julia Adams, Furman
Ellie Schoppe, Furman
Rouxanne Janse van Rensburg, Samford
Nicole Abel, Chattanooga
Doubles
Julia Adams/Ellie Schoppe, Furman
Emma Van Hee/Nicole Abel, Chattanooga
Lilie Steryous/Liz Massie, Wofford
 
Second team
Singles (by position)
No. 1 – Lily Woods, Wofford
No. 2 – Samantha Nanere, Samford
No. 3 – Sara Snyder, Furman
No. 4 – Emilia Alfaro, ETSU
No. 5 – Ellie Schulson, Furman
No. 6 – Jess Dawson, Furman
Doubles (by position)
No. 1 – Naya Tillitt/Mary Courville, Mercer
No. 1 – Rouxanne Janse van Rensburg/Alexis Lopez, Samford
No. 2 – Mayya Gorbunova/Emilia Alfaro, ETSU
No. 3 – Daniela Rivera/Fernanda Carvajal, ETSU
 
All-Freshman
Daniela Rivera, ETSU
Jess Dawson, Furman
Ellie Schulson, Furman
Sara Snyder, Furman
Nicole Abel, Chattanooga
Miray Konar, Western Carolina
Lily Woods, Wofford