Bellio |
Lisichenok |
Skyhawk sophomores named to At Large Academic All-District team for first time
2016 CoSIDA Academic All-District At Large announcement
Stonehill's All-Time Academic All-District honorees
EASTON, Mass. (May 12, 2016) – Stonehill College men's tennis sophomores Thomas Bellio (Saint Joseph, Michigan/Saint Joseph) and Nikolay Lisichenok (Danvers, Massachusetts/Danvers) have been named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District I Men's At Large Team, as selected by College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) members in Division II from the East Region.
Bellio and Lisichenok, who earn Academic All-District first team honors in their first year of eligibility, give the Stonehill men's tennis program its first Academic All-District selections since Chris Martin '13 earned the honors in 2013 and its third and fourth selections all-time, marking the first time in program history it has had two honorees in the same year. The Skyhawks duo are now eligible for Academic All-America selection, as voted on by members of the CoSIDA Academic All-America committee, to be announced later this month. The CoSIDA men's at large Academic All-America program includes student-athletes competing in fencing, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, swimming, tennis, volleyball, water polo and wrestling.
Bellio, who has earned a 3.83 cumulative grade point average as a neuroscience major at Stonehill, competes at No. 1 singles and doubles for the Skyhawks. He has been named to the Northeast-10 Conference Commissioner's Honor Roll and Athletic Director's Honor Roll all three semesters at the College and has been selected to Stonehill's Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program this summer where he will work with John McCoy, professor of psychology and neuroscience at the College, on Role of Glutamatergic Neurons of the Basal Forebrain.
Sophomore Thomas Bellio earns a spot on the Academic All-District first team for the Skyhawks. |
Bellio recently completed a sophomore season in which he posted a 26-18 combined record in singles and doubles play for Stonehill. He was 10-9 in singles play, including a 5-4 mark in the NE-10, while recording a 16-9 doubles clip, including 5-4 in the NE-10, with two different playing partners. He and Lisichenok combined to post a 5-2 doubles record, including 4-2 in the NE-10. Bellio and classmate Tom Buckley (Hebron, Connecticut/RHAM) teamed up to reach the B-Doubles final at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) East Regional after winning the A-Doubles flight at the Stonehill Doubles Invitational last fall.
Bellio earned All-Northeast-10 second team honors at No. 1 doubles as a freshman, when he also collected NE-10 All-Rookie Team status. He has posted a combined career record of 54-32 in singles and doubles play through his first two seasons, going 21-17 in singles, with a 10-7 NE-10 record, with a 33-15 doubles record, including 12-6 in the NE-10. Bellio has been named the NE-10 Player of the Week six times over his career, including three times as a sophomore, to go with five NE-10 Rookie of the Week selections as a freshman.
Lisichenok, who has earned a 3.90 cumulative grade point average as a computer science and finance double major at Stonehill, competes at No. 2 singles and No. 1 doubles for the Skyhawks. He earned the St. Thomas Aquinas, Patron Saint of Students, Medal for the first time this spring for having the highest cumulative grade point average on the men's tennis team and has earned a spot on the NE-10 Commissioner's Honor Roll and Athletic Director's Honor Roll all three semesters to date.
Sophomore Nikolay Lisichenok joins Bellio as a first time Academic All-District honoree. |
Lisichenok finished with a combined 18-26 record in singles and doubles play during his sophomore season, posting an 11-13 doubles record with three different playing partners, including 6-4 in NE-10 matches. He earned NE-10 Player of the Week honors for the first time in his career in September and collected NE-10 Rookie of the Week accolades twice as a freshman. Lisichenok earned All-Northeast-10 second team honors at No. 1 doubles, along with Bellio, following his freshman season when they also won the B-Doubles bracket at the 2014 ITA East Regional.
Lisichenok will enter his junior season at Stonehill with a 51-40 career combined record in singles and doubles play. He is 22-20 over his first two seasons in singles play, including 11-8 in the NE-10, to go with a 29-20 career doubles mark, including 13-7 in the NE-10.
Stonehill finished its 2015-16 season with a 9-10 record overall, including 5-5 in the Northeast-10, and reached the NE-10 Tournament for the 17th straight year.
With 20 intercollegiate sports, Stonehill boasts one of the top athletic and academic programs in the country. In addition to winning its fifth Northeast-10 Presidents' Cup following the 2014-15 academic year, the Skyhawks have received the NCAA Division II Presidents' Award for Academic Achievement each of the first five years of the program's existence of honoring institutions with an Academic Success Rate (ASR) of 90-percent or better. Stonehill has earned a 96% Academic Success Ranking (ASR) by the NCAA two straight years, which considers the academic success rate of the institution based on the graduation rate of student-athletes, good for fifth among all NCAA Division II institutions, with 12 Skyhawk teams receiving a perfect rating of 100%. In addition, the Skyhawks are ranked third in the National Collegiate Scouting Association (NCSA) Power Rankings for Division II used to assess the academic and athletic standards of all NCAA and NAIA athletic programs. Stonehill has also been selected as the host of the 2016 NCAA Division II Field Hockey Championships at W.B. Mason Stadium.
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