STANFORD, Calif. - Following a run to the program's third consecutive Pac-12 Tournament title, Stanford picked up to major awards from the league when the conference announced its postseason honors on Friday, as voted on by Pac-12 head coaches. Angelica Blake was named Pac-12 Singles Player of the Year, Katherine Hui was selected Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, and Lele Forood earned recognition as Pac-12 Coach of the Year.
Blake was also voted to the All-Pac-12 first team and joined there by Connie Ma and Alexandra Yepifanova. Hui was a second-team All-Pac-12 selection, while Alexis Blokhina and Valencia Xu received All-Pac-12 honorable mention accolades.
Blake has had a standout season as a graduate student and is No. 25 in the ITA national rankings. She's played exclusively at the No. 1 spot, going 11-4 this season and 10-3 in duals, and has won six in a row, all in straight sets, with the last four over ranked opponents. Blake, who was 7-1 against conference opponents this spring, was at her best in the Pac-12 Tournament semifinals and final last week in Ojai, beating USC's No. 90 Snow Han 6-0, 6-2 and California's No. 41 Hannah Viller Moeller 6-0, 6-1. She is Stanford's 18th Pac-12 Singles Player of the Year and second in a row following Yepifanova last season. It's the first time one school has had two different players win back-to-back player of the year awards since Stanford in 2001 (Laura Granville) and 2002 (Gabriela Lastra).
Playing primarily at No. 5, Hui has gone 14-5 in her debut season. She's 13-3 in duals and has gone 9-1 against Pac-12 opponents. Teaming up with Valencia Xu in doubles, the pair has gone 16-5 during the dual season at No. 3 and have beaten the only two ranked doubles teams they've faced this season - Washington's No. 78 Melissa Sakar and Catherine Gagnon (6-2) and USC's No. 42 Parker Fry and Grace Piper (6-4). Hui is Stanford's seventh Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and first since Connie Ma two seasons ago.
This season is the first to have two different student-athletes from one school with both Singles Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year since California in 2016 when Maegan Manasse was the Player of the Year and Olivia Hauger the Freshman of the Year. This is the first time in Stanford history it has won both awards in the same season.
Now an eight-time Pac-12 Coach of the Year, Forood is the first back-to-back winner of the award since she did it herself in 2010 and 2011. She led the Cardinal to its third consecutive Pac-12 Tournament title last week in Ojai, and Stanford's sixth in the event's seven years. Stanford is 22-2 overall and 7-1 against top-10 opponents this spring. During its current eight-match winning streak, the Cardinal has beaten its four opponents by a combined score of 38-5.
An All-Pac-12 first teamer for the third time in three years, Connie Ma is the No. 6 seed for the NCAA Singles Championship later this month, the Cardinal's highest-seeded participant since Carol Zhao was the No. 2 seed in Waco in 2015. She boasts an overall record of 36-5 in singles this season, including a 19-2 mark in dual matches and 20-4 record against ranked opponents. Ma has primarily played at the No. 2 spot this season, going 15-2. She's also 4-0 at No. 1 and 1-0 at No. 3.
It's Alexandra Yepifanova's second consecutive All-Pac-12 first-team selection. Currently ranked 29th nationally, Yepifanova has been strong with a 21-7 overall record in singles and an impressive 15-4 mark in dual matches. The reigning Pac-12 Player of the Year has blistered through spring competition, going 1-0 at the No. 1 spot, 3-2 at No. 2 and 11-3 at No. 3.
Blokhina earned her first All-Pac-12 nod following a sophomore campaign that has seen the San Francisco native go 21-7, including 12-4 in duals. Valencia Xu collected her second conference recognition after posting a 20-6 overall record and an 11-4 mark in duals, primarily at No. 6.
