DE PAUL BLUE DEMON TENNIS
Mark Ardizzone is in his 14th season as the head coach of the DePaul women’s tennis program. The winningest coach in the program’s history, Ardizzone has established himself as mentor both on and off the court and continues to lead his squads to the highest level and compete against the nation’s elite. This past fall, Ardizzone coached Anna Redecsi and Selma Salkovic to the ITA Indoor Championship . Redecsi and Salkovic made DePaul history by becoming the first Blue Demon pair to be crowned the ITA Midwest Doubles Champion. The pair continued to set a new standard in Blue Demon tennis as they won their first match and advanced to the quarterfinals of the Indoor National Championship. Redecsi and Salkovic were again rewarded for their fall season as the pair begins 2010 as the No. 9 doubles pair in the Campbell/ITA College Tennis Rankings while the Blue Demon team enters the rankings at No. 45. A long list of program firsts highlighted the 2009 season, most notably a second place finish in the BIG EAST Conference Championship. The Blue Demons shut out league opponents on five occasions, while suffering just two narrow losses to the then-No. 3 team in the nation, Notre Dame. After cruising to the championship match, current Blue Demons assistant coach Dunja Antunovic, Katarina Milinkovic, Redecsi, and Salkovic were selected to the BIG EAST All-Conference Team. In addition, Ardizzone was voted BIG EAST Coach of the Year while he also picked up the ITA Midwest Region Coach of the Year award which is voted on by his peers. An accomplished recruiter, Coach Ardizzone has brought to DePaul some highly taughted recruits and his student-athletes have flourished in his system. A record-high three student-athletes were selected on four occasions as the BIG EAST Player of the Week in 2009. Antunovic and Salkovic earned the honor once, while Redecsi added the title to her resume twice that season. In addition, Gia McKnight had a breakout season, posting a team-high 30-8 singles record. The Blue Demons spent the entire 2009 season in the ITA team rankings and reached a program-best No. 26 while ending the year at No. 47. Individually, Redecsi registered as high as No. 84 on the singles poll, while she earned a doubles ranking as high as No. 64 with Salkovic as her partner. Antunovic and Kirsten Gambrell ended the season at No. 80 in the doubles poll, but spent more than a month as the No. 36-ranked team after a spectacular run at the ITA Midwest Regional. In the Midwest Region, the team ended the 2008-09 season as the No. 6-ranked squad. Redecsi and Antunovic represented the Blue Demons in the singles poll, registering in at No. 9 and No. 17, respectively. Gambrell and Antunovic ranked in at No. 9 on the doubles poll, while Redecsi and Salkovic ended the season at No. 10. 2009-10 DePaul Women’s Tennis Guide | Page 2
Off the court, Ardizzone has instilled a high standard of academic integrity and community involvement in his student-athletes. Antunovic earned the National ITA/Arthur Ashe Award for Leadership and Sportsmanship, named to ESPN The Magazine’s Academic All-District second team, and was the BIG EAST Scholar-Athlete Sports Excellence Award winner. As a team, they were recognized by the NCAA for having a perfect Academic Progress Rate (APR) which ranked in the top-ten percent of all Division I women’s tennis teams. The APR provides a real-time look at a team’s academic success each semester or quarter by tracking the academic progress of each student-athlete. The APR includes eligibility, retention, and graduation in the calculation and provides a clear picture of the academic culture in each sport. The 2008 campaign saw a significant milestone occur in Ardizzone’s career. On March 8, 2008, he picked up his 200th victory as a Division I head coach. In BIG EAST action, the Blue Demons posted a 7-4 record to finish in fourth place, up two spots from the previous year. BIG EAST All-Tournament honors were given to Antunovic and Gergana Ganeva. DePaul ended the year No. 61 on the ITA National Rankings and No. 9 in the Midwest. Academic success was equally prominent in the women’s program during the 2007-08 season. Eight student-athletes were selected to the BIG EAST All-Academic Team. Antunovic was named to the conference’s Scholar-Athlete Sports Excellence Team, in addition to being the recipient of the prestigious ITA/Cissie Leary Award for Sportsmanship. As a team, the women were honored by the BIG EAST as Team Excellence Award winners. The 2007 campaign saw the Blue Demons fight through a series of injuries to finish with a winning record of 13-12 and a BIG EAST record of 6-5 despite playing five weeks of the season shorthanded. Antu-
novic posted a 26-5 singles record, reached a national ranking of No. 77 and picked up All-BIG EAST Tournament honors. All eight members of the squad made the Athletic Director’s Honor Roll and Petra Rehusova was the Midwest Region recipient of the ITA/Arthur Ashe Award for Leadership and Sportsmanship. The 2005 season gave DePaul its first 20-win campaign. The Blue Demons went 20-8 overall and only lost one conference match in their final season in Conference USA. In 2000, DePaul spent four weeks ranked in the nation’s top 75. Off the court, the squad was honored by the ITA as an All-Academic Team for boasting a cumulative GPA of 3.47. Individually, Barbara Fuzesi was named to the ITA Scholar-Athlete All-American team. Ardizzone came to DePaul from the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, where he was the assistant coach for both the men’s and women’s teams. Both of those teams qualified for the National Junior College championships during his tenure. Truly committed to the game, he has served as Chairman of the NCAA Midwest Region ranking committee. Ardizzone has a long history of coaching tennis. He served as the Director of the Nike Tennis Camp in 1998 and has worked at the Northern Illinois Tennis Camp. Mark was also the assistant coach at Northwest Missouri State and was the professional at both the Arrowhead Swim and Tennis and Lockport Racket Clubs. As a player, Mark was a two-year captain at Northwest Missouri State where he was nationally ranked in both singles and doubles. Off the court, he was an Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship Award winner and captured numerous scholarships. Prior to playing at NWMS, Ardizzone played two seasons at the College of DuPage.
Coach Aridizzone’s Last Six Seasons Season Overall Conference Record Record 2003-04 19-10 7-2 2004-05 20-8 9-1 2005-06 16-8 7-4* 2006-07 13-12 6-5* 2007-08 18-8 7-4* 2008-09 21-5 5-2* Cumulative Record: 227-125 Cumulative BIG EAST* Record: 25-15