NATCHITOCHES—Following a successful sophomore season with Northwestern State, Ayu Ishibashi was named Academic All-Southland Conference Second Team, the conference announced Thursday.

Ishibashi, a native of Chiba, Japan, continued her strong showing on and off the court in her second year with the Lady Demons.

A second-team All-Conference selection, Ishibashi compiled a 12-7 record in singles. She finished 10-7 in doubles with partner Tjasa Klevisar at the top spot in the rotation.

She was tied for the most conference wins on the team.

Ishibashi did all that while posting a 4.0 GPA in health and exercise science.

In league play, the sophomore posted an impressive 5-2 mark en route to a second team All-Conference selection.

Ishibashi had a four-match winning streak down the stretch of the regular season in singles to help push the team to the No. 4 seed and a berth in the semis.

Overall, Ishibashi went 10-4 as the No. 2 singles position overall.

NSU finished fourth in the conference in 2023 and earned a trip to the semifinals in the conference tournament after defeating UIW in the first round.
 
Student-Athlete of the Year: Brandelyn Fulgenzi, UIW
First Team

Name	School	Yr.	Hometown	GPA	Major
Emma Aucagne	A&M-Corpus Christi	Jr.	Saint-Fons, France	3.96	Criminal Justice
Victoire Delattre *	A&M-Corpus Christi	Sr.	Valenciennes, France	3.29	Chemistry
Brandelyn Fulgenzi *	UIW	Gr.	Las Vegas, N.M.	3.57	Sports Management
Putri Insani	Southeastern	Gr.	Jakarta, Indonesia	3.80	MBA (Grad)/Accounting (Undergrad)
Gargi Pawar	UIW	So.	Pune, India	4.00	Accounting and Management Information Systems
Kateryna Rublevska	A&M-Corpus Christi	Jr.	Kharkiv, Ukraine	4.00	Management

Second Team

Name	School	Yr.	Hometown	GPA	Major
Flory Bierma	Southeastern	Gr.	Kapelle, The Netherlands	3.98	Health and Kinesiology (Grad)/Sport Management (Undergrad)
Carla Bouygues	Nicholls	Sr.	Bout-du-Pont-de-Larn, France	3.77	Finance
Ayu Ishibashi	Northwestern State	So.	Chiba, Japan	4.00	Health and Exercise Science
Sophia Kermet	UIW	Sr.	Lakeland, Fla.	3.90	Biology
Ariane Monlleo Sanchis	McNeese	So.	Valencia, Spain	3.86	General Business Administration
Shalom Salvi	NJIT	Jr.	Modena, Italy	3.95	Mathematical Sciences

  * All-Conference First Team singles, Automatic Selection