May 22, 2008

BEAUMONT - Lamar University women's tennis player Maria Gutierrez was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District VI University Division teams on Thursday.

Gutierrez, a junior from San Antonio, Venezuela, who has a 3.88 GPA in civil engineering, earned District VI University Division second team honors for the second straight year.

Individually Gutierrez had a strong junior campaign on the court for the Lady Cards, putting together a record of 19-4 for the year while playing predominately at No. 4. During Southland Conference play she went 8-2, with a 7-2 record at No. 4, and a 1-0 record at No. 3. For the year she went 11-4 at No. 4, 6-0 at No. 3, 1-0 at No. 2 and 1-0 at No. 5.

She helped the Lady Cardinals to the best finish in school history and a trip to the NCAA Tournament after they captured their first Southland Conference Tournament crown in school history. They posted a season record of 24 wins and three losses (22-3 vs. Division I opponents), just two wins shy of the school record of 26 wins set by the 1983 team that went 26-9.

District VI is comprised of university's from Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. The sports information directors from each university vote on the team.