SILVER CITY, N.M. – Ganna Tiurina and Zayde Khalil were named the 2014-15 Western New Mexico University Senior Student-Athletes of the Year.
Tiurina changed the course of WNMU’s women’s tennis program collecting a multitude of honors. For starters, she was named the RMAC Academic and Player of the Year each of the past three seasons. She posted double-digit wins every year in singles, as since her arrival, she has played at the top spot. For her career she amassed 56 singles and 46 doubles victories. She helped the Lady Mustangs win their first ever RMAC regular season and tournament titles, as the team won the tournament crown her first year and then won the regular season title in both her sophomore and senior campaigns. WNMU recorded three of the four RMAC tournament titles over the course of her career. Tiurina went an incredible 19-2 in RMAC regular season matches and a perfect 7-0 in tournament matches. Over her career she recorded several wins over Division I opponents and during her sophomore year she set a career-high in singles wins going 17-8.
Khalil was recently inducted into the WNMU Student Hall of Fame and in his senior season alone he was named to the First-Team All-RMAC Academic Team and honorable mention on the field. He was named to the RMAC Academic Team each of the previous two seasons in which he was eligible. He finished his career with 34 starts along the offensive line, which included 32 straight starts since his sophomore season. He helped block for a record-setting offensive season as the team amassed 5,606 yards, the best in program history since 1992-93. In terms of NCAA national rankings the Mustangs finished: ninth in total offense per game (509.6), 10th in passing offense per game (329.4), sixth in first downs (288) and 20th in time of possession (32:50).
This marks the second year the Senior Student-Athlete of the Year award has been handed out. Last year, Rodrigo Almeida and Nicole Luna collected the honors.
