NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State tennis received five selections to the 2026 Southland Conference All-Academic Team, the league office announced on Monday. 
 
Sofi Garcia, Maria Farina, Honoka Umeda, Martina Acebedo Bonocore, Lija Mumlek all earned their first conference academic honors for the Demons this year.
 
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's Kseniya Ramanouskaya was named women's tennis student-athlete of the year.
 
To be considered for academic all-conference selection, a student-athlete must have a minimum 3.25 cumulative GPA.
 
Garcia (computer information systems, 3.54) earned second-team all-Southland honors this season in both singles and doubles. Earning her singles honor at the No. 5 spot and her doubles selection at the No. 1 spot, alongside fellow academic all-conference selection Umeda.
 
Garcia won the first five matches of the season in her singles position and finished the year going 8-1 in conference play. She had an impressive 11-1 mark overall in singles this year, the second most wins on the team with her only loss coming at Southeastern.
 
Umeda (psychology, 3.96) won seven singles matches with a 5-4 mark in conference play, and seven of her nine doubles wins came alongside Garcia. All six of her conference doubles wins was in the pairing with Garcia. She won back-to-back singles matches in conference play on two different occasions, including consecutive road wins at A&M-Corpus Christi and UTRGV.
 
Umeda was also a College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District selection in 2026.
 
Farina (industrial engineering technology, 3.97) also won seven singles matches on the year and had a 5-3 mark in conference play. She won four straight singles matches against Southland opponents to close the month of March, including a three-set win against eventual regular-season champion McNeese.
 
NSU also had a pair of freshmen earn academic all-conference honors, including SLC Freshman of the Year Acebedo (health and exercise science, 4.0).
 
Her team-leading 13-2 overall record in singles, including an 8-1 mark in conference, earned her the first freshman superlative award for NSU since 2012. She also picked up second-team all-conference honors at No. 4 singles and No. 3 doubles.
 
Acebedo lost the first set of a match just twice during the season.
 
Fellow freshman, Mumlek (applied microbiology, 4.0), had a solid rookie campaign for the Demons picking up three wins in doubles this year, earning two of those with Garcia.