MIAMI — FIU's women's tennis program was honored with a haul of selections to the All-Conference USA (CUSA) Teams, as announced by the league office on Wednesday.
The CUSA Champion-Panthers nearly swept the major awards as head coach Katarina Petrovic was honored as CUSA Coach of the Year. Ekaterina Khairutdinova earned Player of the Year honors while Valery Gynina was tabbed Rookie of the Year.
FIU also earned the top CUSA Tournament honors in both singles and doubles. Gynina took home Singles Player of the Meet while the tandem of Oyinlomo Quadre and Katerina Mandelikova earned Doubles Team of the Meet.
Khairutdinova, Quadre, Mandelikova and Gynina were all named First Team All-CUSA performers in singles.
In doubles, Quadre and Mandelikova earned a First Team nod as did teammates Khairutdinova and Salma Loudili. Gynina rounded out FIU's haul with a selection to the All-Freshman Team.
In summation, the Panthers swept the CUSA Tournament accolades, collected three of the four full-season All-CUSA major awards and racked up nine All-CUSA honors.
Petrovic earns her second selection as CUSA Coach of the Year, adding to her honor from 2018. She has now led the Panthers to back-to-back CUSA Championships for the first time in program history and four-straight NCAA Tournaments.
Khairutdinova becomes FIU's second-straight CUSA Player of the Year, joining teammate Quadre, whom was honored in 2023. This is the Panthers' third Player of the Year honor under Petrovic as Andrea Lazaro earned this award following the 2017 season.
Gynina is FIU's third-straight Freshman of the Year, joining Quadre and Yasmine Kabbaj from 2023 and 202, respectively. FIU's current assistant coach Maryna Veksler also earned this honor under Petrovic in 2016.
For the All-CUSA singles honors, Quadre adds her second First Team nod. For Mandelikova, this is her second All-CUSA honor, adding to her Second Team accolade from 2023. Khairutdinova and Gynina are both first-time selections.
In doubles, both Quadre and Khairutdinova earned their second First Team recognitions. Loudili and Mandelikova add their second overall honors and first selections to the First Team.