Two Jayhawks named ITA All-Academic Scholar Athletes

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas’ Nina Khmelnitckaia and Despoina Vogasari were honored Tuesday by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) with the 2018 Scholar-Athlete award.
 
Khmelnitckaia and Vogasari were two of the 4,328 student-athletes across five divisions of college tennis to earn this honor. The ITA Scholar-Athlete award is given to student-athletes who maintain a minimum of a 3.5 grade-point average, are a varsity letterwinner and have been enrolled at their present school for at least two semesters.
 
“We are so proud of Deb and Nina and their commitment to their academics,” said Kansas tennis head coach Todd Chapman. “They both had tremendous years both on and off the tennis court.”
 
Khmelnitckaia, a native of Moscow, Russia, posted an overall singles mark of 22-9 during her junior season of 2017-18. In addition, she finished with a 20-15 overall doubles record. Paired with fellow junior Anastasia Rychagova, the duo was ranked as high as No. 12 during the season, making it all the way to the NCAA Division 1 Doubles Championship, contributing to the Jayhawks’ first NCAA Tournament win in 19 years with a win on court three. Along with helping earn the tournament victory, Khmelnitckaia was named Academic All-Big 12 First Team.
 
Vogasari, a native of Athens, Grece, posted an overall singles mark of 25-9. Throughout the season, she teamed up with Tatiana Nikolaeva, Maria Toran Ribes and Rychagova to earn an overall 22-11 doubles mark. Vogasari’s strong 2018 campaign ended with her being named the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year.

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