Kelly McBryan (Grove City/Grove City) has been named the recipient of the Elite 88 award for the 2011 NCAA Division II women's tennis championship and was honored at the championship banquet Tuesday night.

The Elite 88 is an award founded by the NCAA to recognize the individual who has reached the pinnacle of competition at the national championship level while also achieving the highest academic standard among their peers. It is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade point average at each of the NCAA's 88 championship events.

This is the second year the Elite 88 has been presented, and McBryan is the second IUP athlete to earn the award. Joe Rocco was honored prior to the 2010 men's basketball Elite 8 tournament.

McBryan has a 4.0 GPA as a sports administration major and is a junior academically and a sophomore athletically at IUP. The Crimson Hawks are playing in the national tournament for the first time in school history and take on Armstrong Atlantic in the round of 16 Wednesday at 1:30 in Altamonte Springs, Fla.

McBryan has a singles record of 17-9 this season playing mostly at the No. 5 spot in the IUP lineup. She has also won 15 doubles matches playing primarily with Ranvita Mahto (Burlington, ON/Robert Bateman) at No. 2, including wins over Winston-Salem State and Slippery Rock in the Atlantic Regional that advanced the Crimson Hawks to the national tournament.