Reigning AAC Champs Rack Up Postseason Awards

SMU's women tennis team takes Player of the Year and Coach of Year AAC honors

SMU women's tennis players empty a water cooler onto coach Jeff Nevolo after the Mustangs' AAC Tournament Championship. / SMU Athletics

IRVING – Fresh off their American Athletic Conference Tournament championship, SMU’s women’s tennis team continues to rack up awards before leaving the conference for the ACC. Mustang players won two of the three major postseason honors announced Wednesday.

Hadley Doyle and Taylor Johnson were named to the All-Conference Team. Graduate student Taylor Johnson was named Player of the Year and head coach Jeff Nevolo was named Coach of the Year. It’s the second-straight AAC Coach of the Year award for SMU’s fifth-year coach.

Doyle, the 2023 AAC Player of the Year, finished the season 12-5 in singles matches headed into NCAA play. This record includes one win over a nationally ranked opponent.

Johnson — hailing to the Hilltop from Prescott, Arizona — went 12-9 in dual matches, finishing out the season on a four-match win streak in singles play. With her partner Lana Mavor, the pair was 13-5 in doubles (10-5 in dual matches).

Johnson and Mavor earned the American's automatic qualification to the NCAA Doubles Championship to be played May 20-25 at the Greenwood Tennis Center in Stillwater, Oklahoma, after the conclusion of the team championship, which runs from May 17-19 at the same site.

Next up for SMU (13-11), the Mustangs will first face Alabama (15-10) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday, May 4th at 1 p.m.

2024 AAC Women's Tennis Postseason Honors

Player of the Year

Taylor Johnson, Gr., SMU

Freshman of the Year

Panna Bartha, Florida Atlantic

Coach of the Year

Jeff Nevolo, SMU

All-Conference Team

Adela Wasserbauerova, Gr., UAB

Lucie Petruzelova, Jr., Charlotte

Lucia Quiterio, Gr., Charlotte

Panna Bartha, Fr., Florida Atlantic

Leonie Moeller, Fr., Memphis

Camila Soares, Sr., Memphis

Divna Ratkovic, Fr., Rice

Federica Trevisan, Sr., Rice

Grace Schumacher, Sr., South Florida

Hadley Doyle, Gr., SMU

Taylor Johnson, Gr., SMU

Fatima Gutierrez, So., UTSA

Maria Berlanga Bandera, Jr., Tulsa

Xin Tong Wang, Fr., Wichita State