Crimson & Gray Awards | IUP Coaches of the Year

INDIANA, Pa. – Head women's tennis coach Larry Peterson has been named the 2016-17 IUP Women's Coach of the Year. The honor was announced Monday, June 5 by the IUP Athletic Department.
 
The award is part of the newly established Crimson & Gray Awards, which recognize the top athletes, coaches, teams and performances of the IUP Athletics season.
 
The Coach of the Year Award is in its first year of existence.
 
Peterson guided the Crimson Hawks to the program's first ever Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Championship with a 5-2 win over Mercyhurst back in April. The win capped off a conference tournament in which IUP downed Edinboro, West Chester, and the 46th-ranked Lakers by a combined score of 15-2.
 
IUP used that victory to leapfrog Mercyhurst as the top team in the region, eventually winning the Atlantic Region title with a 5-0 victory over West Virginia State, and advanced to the program's seventh consecutive NCAA Division II sweet 16 appearance.
 
The Crimson Hawks finished with a 20-6 overall record and ranked No. 37 in the final Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) top-50 poll.
 
In the fall, Peterson helped the duo of Jarka Petercakova (Bratislava, Slovakia/Sport Gymnasium) and Luise von Agris (Castrop-Rauxel, Germany/Adalbet-Stifter-Gymnasium) win the doubles title at the annual PSAC Individual Championships in Bloomsburg. It was the first PSAC doubles championship in program history. The pairing finished the year ranked 18th in the Division II doubles rankings.
 
For his efforts, Peterson was named the ITA Atlantic Region Coach of the Year for the fourth time in his career. He also saw two players earn top regional honors, as Raquel Gonzalez (San Sebastian, Spain/Colegio Sagrado Corazon) was named Senior of the Year and von Agris was the Player to Watch.
 
Peterson's top three singles players (Petercakova, von Agris, Gonzalez) and his top two doubles teams (Petercakova/von Agris, Gonzalez/Wood) all earned All-PSAC West honors.

About the Crimson & Gray Awards
The Crimson & Gray Awards consist of 18 total categories - nine women, nine men - with top performers and performances from the 2016-17 year eligible. The inaugural year of awards include: Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Coach of the Year, Performance of the Year, Freshman of the Year, Breakthrough Athlete of the Year, Postseason Performer of the Year, Senior of the Year, Team of the Year and Athlete of the Year.

The IUP Sports Information Office collected award nominations from its coaches and others within the athletic department. Those nominations were then voted on within the office to choose 3-to-5 finalists for each award, which were announced on May 24. Members of the IUP Sports Information Office and Athletic Department took part in the voting process for the nominees and finalists, with the winners announced over a two-week period starting June 5 on IUPAthletics.com.
 
Up next
The 2016-17 IUP Men's and Women's Performance of the Year winners will be announced on Tuesday.
 
Follow
For up-to-date game information, visit www.IUPAthletics.com and follow IUP Athletics on Twitter @IUPCrimsonHawk.