IRVING, Texas (April 26, 2017) -- FIU senior Camila Serrano (Bogota, Colombia) has been named Conference USA Golfer of the Year and junior Katerina Krasova (Ricany, Czech Republic) earned Most Improved Golfer as the All-Conference USA awards were announced by the league office Wednesday. The selections are made by the 11 head coaches in the league.
 
Serrano was the highest-ranked player in the league by Golfstat after the Conference Championships, and the only one ranked among the Top 200 players in Division I, finishing the season ranked 81^st in women's golf. She was 44-1 versus the top players in the league, losing just once to teammate Krasova, in the regular season. Serrano posted four finishes in the top five at 10 tournaments for the season, three more times in the top 10, including a tie for ninth at the C-USA Championships last week. Her average finish was in the 89^th percentile, finishing with a record of 658-85 and a stroke average of 72.57, which was the best of her career by more than a stroke from her freshman year and three strokes better than her sophomore and junior campaigns.
 
Serrano's senior season lowered her career average by more than half a stroke over 101 tournament rounds. She was the top vote getter for all-conference and earned First-Team All-C-USA honors for her outstanding season. She is a four-time all-conference selection and the third-straight Golfer of the Year from FIU. Serrano took home four Golfer of the Week honors this season and was the 2014 C-USA Women's Golf Freshman of the Year.

"Cami had a very solid year," said FIU Head Coach Joe Vogel. "She finished in the top 10 in seven of our 10 events. It's a testament to her good play in the tournament and she kept good focus and good game plan each time out. She was pretty impressive."
 
Krasova finished almost four strokes better in 2017 that the previous season with a 75.36 stroke average. She lowered her career average by nearly a full stroke and finished twice in the top 10, with four rounds of golf at par or better. She finished in the top 20 three other times, including a tie for 13^th at the 2017 C-USA Championships. Her scores were ahead of the top players in the conference on 20 head-to-head occasions.

"Kate has worked hard all year," added Vogel. "I think that hard work has really paid off for her. She was a lot more focused and we found some clubs that worked out better for her. I really look forward to having her back and I hope she can keep improving into her senior year."
 
The program awaits the announcement of the NCAA Regional field, which takes place at 11 a.m. Thursday morning on Golf Channel.

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About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 18 different sports. Athletic events are played in seven different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including Lime Court at FIU Arena and at Riccardo Silva Stadium.
 
About FIU: Florida International University is classified by Carnegie as a "R1: Doctoral Universities - Highest Research Activity" and recognized as a Carnegie Community Engaged university. It is a public research university with colleges and schools that offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs in fields such as business, engineering, computer science, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida's anchor institutions, FIU contributes almost $9 billion each year to the local economy and is ranked second in Florida in Forbes Magazine's "America's Best Employers" list. FIU graduates are consistently among the highest paid college graduates in Florida and are among the leaders of public and private organizations throughout South Florida. FIU is Worlds Ahead in finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission with multiple state-of-the-art research facilities including the Wall of Wind Research and Testing Facility, FIU's Medina Aquarius Program and the Advanced Materials Engineering Research Institute.  FIU has awarded more than 220,000 degrees and enrolls more than 54,000 students in two campuses and centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell, FIU@I-75, the Miami Beach Urban Studios, and Tianjin, China. FIU also supports artistic and cultural engagement through its three museums: Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. FIU is a member of Conference USA and more than 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.