MALIBU, Calif. — Pepperdine men's tennis senior Tim Zeitvogel was named to the West Coast Conference's Men's Tennis All-Academic team, while Daniel De Jonge, Robert Shelton and Eero Vasa earned honorable mention honors, as announced by the conference office on Tuesday.
In order to make the team, student-athletes had to have a minimum of a 3.2 grade point average, at least sophomore athletic and academic standing, at least one year of experience at their current institution and experience playing in at least 50% of the team's contests this season. This year marks the fourth time Zeitvogel (Baden-Baden, Germany) has made the WCC's All-Academic team.
Boasting a perfect 4.0-grade point average while earning his master's degree in business analytics, Zeitvogel excelled on and off the court in his final season in Malibu. The graduate student from Baden-Baden, Germany earned first-team All-WCC honors in both singles and doubles and made the All-WCC Tournament team by helping the Waves win their first WCC Tournament title since 2013. With his teammate De Jonge (Vlissingen, Netherlands) Zeitvogel also qualified for the NCAA Doubles Tournament.
While studying for his master's of dispute resolution at Pepperdine's Caruso School of Law, De Jonge had a 3.443 GPA during the spring semester. He is a three-time WCC All-Academic selection, and this year is the fourth time he has been recognized by the conference for his academic efforts. On the court, De Jonge was the WCC Player of the Year, a first-team all-conference selection in doubles, plus he made the cut for the NCAA Singles and Doubles Tournament this week. He became the first Wave since 2014 to win a match in the NCAA Singles Tournament on Monday; he and Zeitvogel play their first-round doubles matchup today.
Fellow graduate student Vasa (Turku, Finland) also earned honorable mention honors. Vasa had a 3.255 G.P.A. this past spring while also earning second-team All-WCC honors in singles and honorable mention honors in doubles. Vasa played anywhere from the first through the third line for the Waves while teaming up with freshman Maxi Homberg (Freising, Germany) as Pepperdine's No. 2 doubles team.
Rounding out Pepperdine's list of all-academic award winners is Shelton (Lancaster, Pa.) — a computer science and math major who had a perfect 4.0 GPA this past spring. On the court, Shelton helped Pepperdine clinch a share of the regular-season title and advance to the WCC title game in the span of less than a week with two wins on the sixth line against Santa Clara. He also helped Pepperdine sweep #30 San Diego in the WCC Tournament title game with a 6-3, 6-2 win on court six on April 29.
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