AUBURN, Ala. – Nine Auburn players have been named to the All-Academic Team, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced this week. Anastasia Astakhova, DJ Bennett and Ali DeSpain were each named to the women's team while Billy Blaydes, Jan Galka, Spencer Gray, Nicholas Heng, Alejandro Moreno and Will Nolan were named to the men's All-Academic Team.
Astakhova completed her final season with the Tigers in 2023 and maintained a 4.00 GPA in Physical Activity & Health. This marks the third consecutive season that the Karaganda, Kazakhstan native has been named an ITA Scholar.
Bennett, who was named to the 2023 SEC All-Freshman team and the SEC First-Year Academic Honor Roll, also received the honor after her first season on the Plains. Bennett recorded an impressive 21-9 singles record (including six singles wins over ranked opponents) and an 18-8 doubles record during the season.
After joining the team in January, DeSpain was named to the team after posting a 4.00 GPA in her first year of graduate school. DeSpain has now a two-time ITA Scholar Athlete as she was also a member of the All-Academic Team in 2021 during her time at Clemson.
Both Spring 2023 graduates from the men's tennis team, Galka and Gray, each made the ITA All-Academic team in their final seasons with the Tigers. Galka received two undergraduate degrees in Business Management and Supply Chain Management as well as a minor in Organizational Leadership from the Harbert College of Business in May while Gray graduated with a Finance degree and a 4.00 GPA this year. Both Galka and Gray have been named ITA Scholar Athletes four consecutive seasons.
Blaydes, Moreno and Heng each became ITA Scholar Athletes after their freshman season at Auburn. Blaydes became a member of the SEC All-Freshman team after recording a 14-7 singles record and a 14-9 doubles record this season while Moreno went 18-10 overall in singles and 19-10 on the doubles court. Heng, who redshirted during the 2022-23 season, posted a perfect 4.00 GPA during his first year as a Law & Justice major.
Nolan also received the nod following his sophomore year in the College of Business. Nolan was also named to the Spring SEC Academic Honor Roll this season.
To be named an ITA Scholar-Athlete, each student-athlete must have a grade point average of at least 3.5 (on a 4.00 scale) for the current academic year. In 2023, 1,513 Division I Women's student-athletes were named an ITA Scholar-Athlete while 959 Division I Men's student-athletes were named an ITA Scholar-Athlete.
In addition to having nine student-athletes honored, Auburn University was also named an ITA All-Academic Team for both the men's and women's programs. To be named an ITA All-Academic Team, programs must have a team grade point average of 3.2 or above (on a 4.00 scale) with all varsity letter winners factored into the cumulative team GPA for the current academic year.
