TEMPE, Ariz. – Western Michigan women's tennis player Denise Azcui has been named the 2018 Intercollegiate Tennis Association Division I Midwest Regional Arthur Ashe Jr. Leadership & Sportsmanship Award winner, which was announced by the ITA early Monday morning.

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"Denise is more than deserving for this award," commented WMU head coach Ryan Tomlinson. "She is a great representative of this program and this university. To be one of 11 recipients from across the country is outstanding. It wouldn't surprise me if she wins the national award, which is given out at the end of the month."

The Arthur Ashe Jr. Leadership & Sportsmanship Award is given annually to collegiate student-athletes who have shown great achievements on and off the court. A select group of accomplished student-athletes have been honored in this way since 1982. Ashe himself inaugurated the award and personally made the presentations until his tragic passing in 1993.

The award takes into account a player's tennis accomplishments, scholastic achievements and extracurricular endeavors, and recognizes players who excelled on and off the court as Ashe did during his life.  Sportsmanship, leadership and character are important criteria, as is giving back to the community.

ITA Regional Award Winners are selected by the regional committees while the ITA National Awards are selected by the national committee, which is comprised of one representative form each Region along with the Chair and Associate Chare of the D1 Operating Committee. The National Awards will be announced Wednesday, May 23.

Azcui becomes just the second Bronco, including Cindy Turner who was honored in 1992, in program history to receive the honor. The junior joins 10 other NCAA D1 female tennis players in the country to win the regional award including Amanda Studnicki (Delaware), Hadley Berg (South Carolina), Malini Wijesinghe (Bradley), Brianna Chisholm (Utah), Sunday Swett (Yale), Emma Wilson (Fresno State), Lidia Yanes Garcia (Austin Peay State), Sinead Lohan (Miami), Anastasia Rentouli (Mississippi State) and Sabrina Federici (Texas Tech).

The Bloomington, Ind. was recently voted the Amy Yeast co-MVP Team Award. On the court, the co-captain finished with a 19-11 singles record including an impressive 6-2 record at No. 3 in Mid-American Conference play. She concluded the season winning eight of her last 10 matches and went 5-5 in doubles play at No. 5 during the season.

Azcui is actively involved in her community as well. This past winter, Azcui ran a "Christmas Angle Tree Program" for all WMU student-athletes through the Salvation Army in Kalamazoo. With Azcui's help, the Broncos were able to raise $1,000 and donate 100 Christmas items for the local children.

The junior holds a 3.93 cumulative GPA in Industrial & Entrepreneurial Engineering and has minors in Management and Mathematics. On Feb. 20 she was given the Robert E. Boughner Engineering Student-Athlete Award and was recently tabbed to the Academic All-MAC team for the second straight year. Azcui is a member of the Alphi Pit Mu and the Tau Beta Pi and serves as the President of the Student Athletic Advisory Committee for WMU.