UNLV SPORTSMAN & SPORTSWOMAN OF THE YEAR ANNOUNCED
Kevin Penner and Aleksandra Josifoska earn school’s top athletics award for 2012-13
Men’s golf standout Kevin Penner has been named the UNLV Sportsman of the Year for 2012-13, while women’s tennis star Aleksandra Josifoska won the Sportswoman of the Year award, UNLV Athletics announced Thursday.
Penner was a senior this past school year and is a native of Sammamish, Wash. He was named honorable mention All-America for the second straight season after earning PING All-West Region honors, also for the second consecutive year.
He earned the individual title at the Mountain West Championship in May and led UNLV in scoring this season with an average of 72.11 over 35 rounds. In 12 tournaments played, he recorded seven top-10 individual finishes, including five in the top five. He finished the season with a tie for second individually at the NCAA Championship, helping the Rebels to an “Elite Eight” showing at the national finals.
Penner ranked fifth in the conference in scoring average this past year and recorded 11 rounds in the 60s, including all three of his stroke-play rounds at the NCAA Championship. He is the first golf student-athlete to earn UNLV Sportsman of the Year since Ryan Moore in 2005 and is the 10th overall.
Josifoska is a rising senior from Skopje, Macedonia. She finished the season ranked 43rd and reached the nation’s top 20 during the year after winning the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Mountain Regional singles crown in the fall.
The 2013 Mountain West Player of the Year, she went 7-0 vs. league opponents for the second straight season to improve her career record vs. MW foes to a stunning 21-1. As part of her 34-9 overall mark, Josifoska had seven wins over opponents that ended the year ranked in the top 100, including a victory over the nation’s seventh-ranked player.
Playing at the top of the lineup, Josifoska helped the Lady Rebels to a MW Tournament title and spot in the NCAA Championships and her thrilling three-set victory over 18th-ranked Samantha Vickers would clinch UNLV’s 4-3 upset of Tulsa in the first round of the national event. She also earned her first trip to the NCAA Singles Tournament this past spring and is the first tennis player to earn UNLV Sportswoman of the Year since 2010 and the seventh overall.
The UNLV Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year awards are presented annually to the athletics department’s top male and female athletes, taking only athletic performance during the past year into account.