Saint Joseph, Michigan, junior co-captain is men's tennis program's first two-time honoree
CoSIDA Academic All-District™ At Large Teams Announcement
Stonehill's All-Time CoSIDA Academic All-District™ Honorees
EASTON, Mass. (May 11, 2017) – Stonehill College men's tennis junior co-captain Thomas Bellio (Saint Joseph, Michigan/Saint Joseph) has been named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District™ I Men's At Large First Team, as selected by College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) members in Division II from the East Region.
Bellio is the first student-athlete from the men's tennis program to earn Academic All-District™ honors multiple years after also being selected as a sophomore. He is one of four men's tennis student-athletes to receive a total of five Academic All-District™ selections in program history – all coming within the last seven years. Bellio is 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 3.84 cumulative grade point average as a neuroscience major at Stonehill, competes at No. 1 singles and doubles for the Skyhawks. In addition to his back-to-back CoSIDA Academic All-District™ first team selections, Bellio earned NE10 Academic All-Conference honors and Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Scholar-Athlete honors as a sophomore, while being named to the NE10 Commissioner's Honor Roll and Athletic Director's Honor Roll all five semesters at the College. He has been inducted to Nu Rho Psi National Honor Society and last summer participated in Stonehill's Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program, where he worked with John McCoy, professor of psychology and neuroscience at the College, on Role of Glutamatergic Neurons of the Basal Forebrain.
Bellio recently completed a junior season in which he posted a combined 17-17 record in singles and doubles play for Stonehill. He was 11-8 in doubles play with two different playing partners, including a 10-8 mark with classmate Nikolay Lisichenok (Danvers, Massachusetts/Danvers), while finishing 6-9 overall in singles, including a 5-4 clip in NE10 play. Among his five NE10 wins was a 6-4, 6-1 triumph over Bentley University's Brendan McCarthy, the 18th-ranked singles player in the East Region by the ITA at the time. He and Lisichenok combined to win the A-Doubles bracket at the season-opening Stonehill Doubles Invitational back in September, marking the second-straight year Bellio has won the event with two different playing partners. Bellio was recently recognized as the College "Breakout Junior" Award winner at its Athletic Awards Ceremony.
Bellio and classmate and co-captain Tom Buckley (Hebron, Connecticut/RHAM) teamed up to reach the B-Doubles final at the 2015 ITA East Regional after winning the A-Doubles flight at the Stonehill Doubles Invitational last fall. He earned All-NE10 second team honors at No. 1 doubles with Lisichenok as a freshman, when he also collected NE10 All-Rookie Team status. He has posted a combined career record of 71-49 in singles and doubles play through his first two seasons, going 27-26 in singles, with a 15-11 NE10 record, with a 44-23 doubles record, including 15-12 in the NE10. Bellio has been named the NE10 Player of the Week seven times over his career, including once this spring, to go with five NE10 Rookie of the Week selections as a freshman.
Stonehill finished its 2016-17 season with a 6-9 record overall, including 4-5 in the NE10, narrowly missing out on an 18th straight trip to the Conference tournament by way of the Conference's tiebreaker after finishing tied with Assumption College in the standings, but losing the head-to-head matchup in the final week of the season.
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