Liljekvist Earns Second-Straight All-BIG EAST Honor

May 8, 2015

NEW YORK -- Following a season in which she shone from the top spots in the singles and doubles lineups for The Hall, junior Hannah Liljekvist (Djursholm, Sweden) has been selected to the All-BIG EAST Women's Tennis Team for the second consecutive year the conference announced on Friday.

Liljekvist has now earned all-conference recognition in both of her seasons at Seton Hall after transferring from Saint Mary's (CA) prior to the 2013-14 campaign. She becomes just the second two-time All-BIG EAST honoree in program history, joining 2014 graduate Chloe Sher who was tabbed as an all-league selection in each of her final three seasons.

One of 12 players across the league to earn the distinction, Liljekvist was the lone junior to receive the honor.

Stepping into the #1 role vacated by Sher did little to slow the native Swede down in 2014-15 as she continued to establish herself as a team leader and one of the premier players in the conference.

In the fall, she was invited to compete at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Northeast Regional Championship in singles and doubles, advancing to the round of 64 as an individual before falling to nationally-ranked Lexi Borr of Boston College.

During the spring season, Liljekvist ranked second on the squad with 12 dual match victories --pushing her two-year total to 23 in a Pirate uniform, all of which have come at the top two positions.

Liljekvist rattled off consecutive victories on four occasions, beginning with triumphs over Longwood's Malin Allgurin and Sam Droop of Navy during a trip to Annapolis. She added a victory over Carolina Zanotta of NJIT before prevailing over fellow All-BIG EAST selection Victoire Saperstein in her first conference match of the spring.

In all, Liljekvist picked up four wins over conference opposition in 2015; topping Tori Smyth (Villanova) and Nicole Cyterski (Providence) as part of team victories in the regular season before closing the year by getting past Butler's Kylie Haviland in what was essentially a road match for the Pirates at the BIG EAST Championship.

On the doubles court, Liljekvist slid up to the first position alongside classmate Julia Keenan (Greenland, N.H.) and the two went on to combine for a team-high 13 victories; eight of which came in a dual match setting.

The two juniors advanced to the round of 32 at the ITA Northeast event and were perhaps the squad's most consistent tandem for a bulk of the spring season; logging a 7-3 record from the final week of February to the first week of April.

BIG EAST champions DePaul swept all three major awards with Yulia Shupenia claiming Player of the Year honors, Patricia Lancranjan taking home the Freshman of the Year award and Mark Adrizzone earning the nod for Coach of the Year.

Liljekvist helped make Seton Hall one of the seven schools that landed at least one player on the All-BIG EAST squad.

All-BIG EAST Major Awards and All-Conference

Player of the Year -- Yulia Shupenia, DePaul, So.

Freshman of the Year -- Patricia Lancranjan, DePaul

Coach of the Year -- Mark Adrizzone, DePaul

All-BIG EAST

Jennie Hartjes, Creighton, Sr.

Patricia Fargas, DePaul, Sr.

Patricia Lancranjan, DePaul, Fr.

Jasmin Kling, DePaul, Sr.

Rebecca Mitrea, DePaul, RS-Sr.

Yulia Shupenia, DePaul, So. ^