Native of France named Sun Belt Freshman of the Year last month

BATON ROUGE – Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns men’s tennis student-athlete Arthur Libaud was named the Freshman of the Year as the annual Louisiana Sports Writers Association All-Louisiana college men’s and women’s tennis teams were selected in a vote of tennis media relations personnel.

Libaud, from Les Chenevieres, France, was named to the LSWA second-team and one of two Ragin’ Cajuns to be named to the team, joining first-team member Edgar Lopez.

Libaud, the Sun Belt Conference Freshman of the Year, finished 12-5 overall in singles play in his first season with the Ragin’ Cajuns, playing primarily in the top half of the lineup. He helped Louisiana claim a 4-3 win over nationally-ranked North Florida after clinching the match with a three-set victory at No. 2 singles. A second-team All-SBC pick, Libaud went 11-11 in doubles play for the Ragin’ Cajuns.

Lopez, who earned first-team All-SBC honors in both singles and doubles, recorded a team-best 14 wins in singles play during the 2015-16 campaign while teaming with Eric Perez to post a 17-7 record in doubles. He opened the season posting a combined 7-2 record at No. 2 and No. 3 singles before moving up to the No. 1 slot where he went 7-2.

He helped the Ragin’ Cajuns earn wins over doubles teams from three nationally-ranked programs while teaming with Perez to claim their last seven decisions on the court and 14 of their last 15 matches.

ITA Southern Region Player of the Year Dominik Koepfer of Tulane earned Player of the Year honors on the men’s side in the state, while the Southland Conference’s top player, Renee Villarreal of Southeastern Louisiana earned the selection on the women’s side.

LSU’s Jessica Golovin named the LSWA Women’s Freshman of the Year, while Karan Salwan of Xavier for men and Ryann Foster of LSU for women were named the Newcomer of the Year in the state for first-year non-freshman in Louisiana.

Chosen in the voting as the coaches were Tulane Coach Mark Booras, who returned the Green Wave men’s team to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2005. On the women’s side, there was a tie with Chad Camper of Louisiana Tech and LSU co-head coaches Julia and Michael Sell. Camper helped Tech to its first-ever national ranking and became the first head coach to record multiple 15-win seasons.

Here is the complete Men’s and Women’s Teams as selected for the LSWA:

LSWA All-Louisiana Men’s Tennis
First Team

Name, School/Cl./Hometown/Notes
Justin Butsch, LSU/Jr./Miami, Fla./All-SEC Second Team, Team leading 25 wins
Dominik Koepfer, Tulane/Sr./Furtwangen, Germany/Southern Region POY, 30 wins
Chi-Shan Jo, Tulane/Jr./Taipei City, Taiwan/23 singles wins, 25 doubles wins
Edgar Lopez, Louisiana/Sr./Mexico City, Mexico/All-SBC First Team, 14 singles wins, 17 doubles wins
Karan Salwan, Xavier/Jr./New Delhi, India/NAIA A-A, 21 singles wins, 22 doubles wins
Constantin Schmitz, Tulane/So./Remagen, Germany/27 singles wins, 17 doubles wins

Player of the Year
Dominik Koepfer – Tulane

Freshman of the Year
Arthur Libaud – Louisiana

Newcomer of the Year
Karan Salwan – Xavier

Coach of the Year
Mark Booras – Tulane

Second Team All-Louisiana Men’s Tennis
Boris Arias – LSU (Sr., La Paz, Boliva, ITA Doubles A-A); Gabor Csonka – LSU (So., Nyiregyhaza, Hungary, 23 singles, 22 doubles wins); Jordan Daigle – LSU (Jr., Lafayette, La., All-SEC Second Team); Arthur Libaud – Louisiana (Fr., Les Chenevieres, France, SBC FOY); Sebastian Rey – Tulane (Jr., Wantage, England, 25 singles, 20 doubles wins); Thomas Setodji – Xavier (Fr, Domont, France, NAIA A-A).

Honorable Mention—Kyle Montrel – Xavier (Sr., Atlanta, Ga.)

LSWA All-Louisiana Women’s Tennis
First Team

Name, School/Cl./Hometown/Notes
Hannah Brett, McNeese/So./Wokingham, Berkshire UK/All-SLC First Team, 9-0 SLC singles
Jessica Golovin, LSU/Fr./New York, N.Y./All-SEC Freshman Team, 21 singles wins
Abby Owens, LSU/Jr./Duluth, Georgia/32 overall singles wins, 11-1 in SEC
Alexandra Starkova, Louisiana Tech/Sr./Madrid, Spain/C-USA First Team, all-conf. first team four years
Joana Vale Costa, LSU/Jr./Lisbon, Portugal/All-SEC First Team, 4th LSU earning consecutive NCAA bids
Renee Villarreal, Southeastern/Sr./Monterrey, Neuvo Leon, Mexico/SLC POY, 18 singles wins, 10-1 SLC

Player of the Year
Renee Villarreal – Southeastern

Freshman of the Year
Jessica Golovin – LSU

Newcomer of the Year
Ryann Foster – LSU

Coach of the Year
(Tie) Chad Camper, Louisiana Tech; and, Julia & Michael Sell, LSU

Second Team All-Louisiana Women’s Tennis
Ryann Foster – LSU (So., Sunrise, Fla.; 25 singles wins); Charlene Goreau – Xavier (Fr., Toulouse, France; NAIA A-A); Polina Ivanoa — Northwestern State (So., Moscow, Russia; SLC Second Team); Sarah Jurakova – McNeese (So., Trnava, Slovakia; SLC Second Team); Natalya Krutova – Northwestern State (Sr., Sevatopol, Ukraine; SLC Second Team); Skyler Kuykendall – LSU (Sr., Jasper, Ala.; 22 singles win); Tiffany Mylonas – ULM (Fr., Brussels, Belgium; SBC Second Team).

Honorable Mention
Jazmin Britos — Louisiana Tech (Jr., Villarrica, Paraguay; C-USA Second Team); Giovanna Fioretti – McNeese (Fr., Monsano, Italy; SLC FOY).