CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Mid-American Conference announced the 2018 women's tennis awards on Thursday morning as the Western Michigan women's tennis team saw two different players earn postseason awards. Both redshirt senior Barbare Eristavi and junior Melina Lyubomirova were honored to the All-MAC Second Team for their performances on the court this year for the Broncos.

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @WMUWomensTennis

"These are two well deserving individuals for this honor," commented WMU head coach Ryan Tomlinson. "Both players played one and two singles all year and had overall winning records at the top. They did a wonderful job of competing each and every day for us."

In her final season with the Brown & Gold, Eristavi finished playing at No. 1 during the conference season going 4-4 overall against her MAC opponents. She ended at 16-13 overall in singles including 14-9 in dual matches. During Feb. 24-March 30, Eristavi went a perfect 8-0 with four of those victories coming at one. The Tbilisi, Georgia native finished her career with a three set victory on Senior Day over her Bowling Green opponent. In doubles, she went 4-4 at No. 1 in doubles play during the season. Eristavi concludes her lustrous career tied in 17th on the Bronco all-time wins list with 170 total victories and is No. 8 on the all-time singles wins list with a total of 94.

Lyubomirova led the Broncos during the season with a 19-12 overall record including a 16-7 dual match record to go along with an impressive 7-1 record during MAC play. The captain went 6-4 at No. 1 and 10-3 at No. 2 in singles for the Broncos and led all WMU players with a 10-match winning streak from March 15 – April 20.  After dropping three straight matches in late January, the junior turned it around to win 14 of her next 17 matches to conclude the season. In doubles Lyubomirova went 14-15 to lead the Brown & Gold, including a 5-6 record with teammate Katja Fevralev at the one position.

Western Michigan concludes its season at 11-13 overall and 2-6 during conference play. The Broncos also proved to be a tough opponent at home during the year, ending with a 9-3 record in Kalamazoo. WMU says goodbye to lone senior Eristavi.

2018 Women's Tennis All-MAC
FIRST TEAM
Nelli Ponomareva, Miami
Chantal Martinez Blanco, Buffalo
Ani Gogvadze, Eastern Michigan
Tanja Stojanovska, Buffalo
Paula Comella, Bowling Green
Polina Radeva, Bowling Green
 
SECOND TEAM
Miruna Vasilescu, Akron
Lolade Ogungbesan, Buffalo
Melina Lyubomirova, Western Michigan
Barbare Eristavi, Western Michigan
Anna Uljanov, Akron
Dee Dee Leenabanchong, Toledo