SPARTANBURG, S.C. – ETSU’s Laylo Bakhodirova has been named the 2023 Southern Conference Women’s Tennis Player of the Year, as announced by the league on Wednesday. Western Carolina’s Isabella Sambola was named the SoCon Freshman of the Year, while ETSU’s Ricky Rojas was named the league’s Coach of the Year for the third straight season. Wofford’s Breda Brennan 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. The first team features four doubles pairings due to a tie in voting.
 
Bakhodirova becomes ETSU’s second SoCon Player of the Year and first since Kim Toohey in 1992. The senior from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, is a league-best 17-3 at No. 1 singles, including a 7-0 mark in SoCon play, and is 14-7 at No. 1 doubles (5-2 SoCon), all with partner Mariya Shumeika. A four-time SoCon Player of the Week and the February and March Player of the Month this season, Bakhodirova earned first-team All-SoCon honors at both singles and doubles with Shumeika. She enters this week’s SoCon Women’s Tennis Championship having won eight straight singles matches and 15 of her last 16, a streak interrupted only by a loss to 17th-ranked Amelia Rajecki of No. 4 NC State on March 5. Bakhodirova and Shumeika picked up a ranked doubles win this season on Feb. 18, topping VCU’s Yelizaveta Karlova and Victoria Matasova, ranked No. 59 nationally, by a 6-4 score.
 
Sambola is Western Carolina’s first-ever SoCon Freshman of the Year in women’s tennis. The first-year player from New Orleans, Louisiana, went 9-11 overall in singles play this season, including a 9-10 mark at No. 1. Sambola also combined for a 9-12 doubles record with three different partners between Nos. 1 and 2, including a 3-4 SoCon record. Sambola helped the Catamounts to a school-record 14 wins this season, as Western Carolina enters postseason play with a 14-9 overall mark. Sambola was one of three Catamounts to earn SoCon All-Freshman Team honors, as she was joined by Jade Groen and Leilany Ipunesso on the squad.
 
Rojas has led ETSU to a league-best 16-7 overall mark and a 6-1 SoCon record in earning his third career Coach of the Year honor and the fourth for ETSU all-time. The Bucs played for a SoCon regular-season title in their final match of the regular season, dropping a hotly contested 4-3 decision to fellow SoCon unbeaten Furman on Saturday. In addition to first-team All-SoCon picks Bakhodirova and Shumeika, Rojas directs a squad that saw two more players earn All-SoCon honors, with Maria Fernanda Carvajal earning first-team singles and doubles honors and Daniela Rivera earning first-team doubles honors and second-team singles distinction at No. 5. Rojas led ETSU to a 5-2 win over No. 72 Yale on March 16, good for the Bucs’ third win over a ranked opponent in the last four seasons.
 
Brennan becomes Wofford’s fourth Sportsmanship Award winner, of which have come since 2014. A sophomore from Limerick, Ireland, Brennan earned second-team All-SoCon honors at No. 2 singles, where she was 11-8 overall and 5-2 in SoCon play this season. Brennan also went 7-9 in doubles with three different partners this season, including a 7-7 mark at No. 2 with Emma Sorensen.
 
Regular-season SoCon champion Furman put No. 1 singles player Ellie Schulson and top doubles tandem Jess Dawson and Sara Snyder on the all-conference first teams, while freshman Luca Victoria Vocke earned second-team honors at No. 6 singles and a spot on the All-Freshman squad.
 
Mercer’s Teodora Ristic and Mary Weston Courville earned first-team singles and doubles honors, while Marina de Diego Quinones earned All-Freshman Team honors.
 
Samford’s Alexis Lopez rounded out the singles first team and the Bulldogs’ Cameron Rogin earned a spot on the All-Freshman Team.
 
Chattanooga’s Jesse Young earned second-team honors at No. 1 singles and was joined on the squad by Rozalie Dohnalova at No. 4. Young and Caroline Gibbens earned second-team honors at No. 1 doubles and Dohnalova and Lucia Melendez nabbed the No. 2 doubles spot on the second team.
 
Wofford’s Brianna Wilbur joined teammate Brennan on the second team at No. 3 singles, and Western Carolina’s Groen and Andrea Redondo earned second-team honors at No. 3 doubles.
 
The SoCon Women’s Tennis Championship begins Thursday at 1 p.m. at the Champions Club in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with all eight league teams vying for the title.
 
2023 Southern Conference Player of the Year
Laylo Bakhodirova, Sr., ETSU
 
2023 Southern Conference Freshman of the Year
Isabella Sambola, Western Carolina
 
2023 Southern Conference Coach of the Year
Ricky Rojas, ETSU
 
2023 Southern Conference Sportsmanship Award
Breda Brennan, So., Wofford
 
2023 All-Southern Conference Women’s Tennis
First team
Singles
Laylo Bakhodirova, ETSU
Maria Fernanda Carvajal, ETSU
Ellie Schulson, Furman
Teodora Ristic, Mercer
Mary Weston Courville, Mercer
Alexis Lopez, Samford
Doubles
Laylo Bakhodirova/Mariya Shumeika, ETSU
Maria Fernanda Carvajal/Daniela Rivera, ETSU
Jess Dawson/Sara Snyder, Furman
Mary Weston Courville/Teodora Ristic, Mercer
 
Second team
Singles (by position)
No. 1 – Jessie Young, Chattanooga
No. 2 – Breda Brennan, Wofford
No. 3 – Brianna Wilbur, Wofford
No. 4 – Rozalie Dohnalova, Chattanooga
No. 5 – Daniela Rivera, ETSU
No. 6 – Luca Victoria Vocke, Furman
Doubles
No. 1 – Caroline Gibbens/Jessie Young, Chattanooga
No. 2 – Rozalie Dohnalova/Lucia Melendez, Chattanooga
No. 3 – Jade Groen/Andrea Redondo, Western Carolina
 
All-Freshman
Luca Victoria Vocke, Furman
Marina de Diego Quinones, Mercer
Cameron Rogin, Samford
Jade Groen, Western Carolina
Leilany Ipunesso, Western Carolina
Isabella Sambola, Western Carolina