DeLand, Fla. – In addition to yet another successful winning season on the court, the Stetson men's tennis team has been achieving at a high level in the classroom, a fact that was recognized recently by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.  The Hatters were one of just 47 teams in NCAA Division I named as an ITA All-Academic Team and one of only three in the Atlantic Sun Conference.  Six Stetson men's tennis student-athletes earned individual recognition as ITA Scholar Athletes, more than any other A-Sun institution.

Only Dartmouth, Harvard, IPFW, Princeton, Stanford and Yale produced more ITA Scholar Athletes in 2008-09 than the Hatters.  Class of 2009 graduates Peter Dzuba (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) and Filip Kricka (Umag, Croatia) joined rising sophomores Cesare Gallo (Portogruaro, Italy), Maksim Levanovich (Minsk, Belarus), Dane Moran (Morpeth, Australia) and Njal Stene (Oslo, Norway) on the list.

This is the first ITA All-Academic Team honor for the Hatters since the list began in 2002.  Dzuba was a four-time All-Academic honoree during his Stetson career.

Besides Stetson, only Belmont and Kennesaw State were named as All-Academic Teams from the A-Sun.   Five Bruins, five Owls and two USC Upstate Spartans were individually honored as well.

The Hatters completed the 2009 campaign 18-7 overall and 7-3 in Atlantic Sun Conference action, advancing to the A-Sun tournament finals for the fourth consecutive season.  Six out of the seven players that regularly competed for Head Coach Pierre Pilote return in 2009-10, including A-Sun All-Freshman Team picks Gallo, Levanovich and Stene.