SAN FRANCISCO -- The Pac-12 Conference announced today the women’s tennis All-Pac-12 honors for the 2016 season, and Arizona State women's tennis head coach Sheila McInerney was named the Coach of the Year, as determined by a polling of the Conference coaches.
The award becomes the second time McInerney has received the honor in her 32 years at ASU, with the first coming in 1997.
The 2015-16 season has seen a handful of firsts for McInerney and the program. The first came in March, as the Sun Devils defeated the eventual-Pac-12 Champion Stanford for just the second time in program history -- both coming under the tutelage of McInerney. A month later, the women upset then-No. 23 UCLA on the road for the first time since 2000. Those two victories helped the Sun Devils to the best conference finish in program history at 8-2, finishing fourth in the Pac-12.
At the Pac-12 Championships, McInerney's doubles team of Ebony Panoho and Alex Osborne brought home the hardware, winning the program's first doubles championship. Their streak of victories in route to the championship helped the Devils win the first-ever Pac-12 Team Title, which is awarded to the team who wins the most singles and doubles matches in the main draw.
With the announcement on Tuesday of the Sun Devils heading to Auburn for the first and second round of the NCAA Tournament, it becomes McInerney's 29th-straight NCAA appearance and the 31st in her 32-year tenure.
Throughout the season, the Devils were ranked in the mid-20's throughout the season, while reaching as high as No. 19 and never lower then No. 36 -- where they ranked for just one week before returning to No. 26.
Senior Desirae Krawczyk was also named to the Pac-12 First-Team All-Conference team, becoming the first Sun Devil to earn first-team honors since Kelcy McKenna in 2011. She is also just the 11th ASU women's tennis player all-time to earn First-Team All-Conference honors.
Krawczyk put together yet another impressive season during her senior campaign, defeating the then-No. 1 ranked player in the country (Ohio State's Francesca Di Lorenzo) for the second-straight year. She compiled a 26-11 record in 2015-16 with a 12-7 regular season performance.
In January, she was honored as the Pac-12 Conference Women's Tennis Player of the Week for her play from the 11-17.
Over her four-year ASU career, Krawczyk currently ranks fourth on the all-time singles wins' list with 97.
Senior Ebony Panoho and junior Kassidy Jump were named Pac-12 All-Conference Honorable Mention.