DENVER – The University of Denver women's tennis team swept the annual Summit League awards while placing six of its student-athletes on the All-Summit League Team, the Summit League announced on Thursday.
 
For the second time in the last three years and the sixth time overall, Denver won all three "of the year" awards from the Summit League with senior Louise Wikander being named the Player of the Year, freshman Yunfei Cai as the Newcomer of the Year and head coach Paul Wardlaw as the Coach of the Year.
 
Player of the Year Wikander went 5-1 in Summit League play at No. 1 singles – seeing the only loss coming in a 10-point match tiebreak – while adding a 4-1 doubles record. She is sitting on a 23-9 overall singles record on the year, winning 11 of them in straight sets during the spring dual season. Seven times this year, she picked up Summit League weekly recognition including five times as the Peak Performer of the Week. During the fall season, she won the ITA Mountain Regional singles title and booked a spot at the NCAA DI Singles Tennis Championships while ranking as high as No. 79 nationally in singles.
 
Wikander finishes her career by earning All-Summit League honors in all four of her seasons at Denver.
 
Newcomer of the Year Cai made a statement in her first collegiate season, racking up 23 singles wins and 12 more in doubles in 2025-26. In Summit League play, she was a perfect 6-0 in singles including 4-0 from the Nos. 4 and 5 spots. She leads the DU roster with six dual-clinching points in singles and has won 11 matches in straight sets during the spring dual season – including all six in Summit League play, five of which came with five or fewer games dropped and featuring a double bagel in the League opener at St. Thomas. Along the way, she earned a Summit League Doubles Peak Team of the Week award as well.
 
Wardlaw made it a perfect five-for-five in being named the Summit League Coach of the Year, doing so in each of his seasons leading the Pioneers. Under his guidance, Denver picked up its 12^th consecutive Summit League regular-season title in 2026, doing so with another 6-0 record and securing DU's perfect 71-0 record in league duals since Denver joined the Summit League in 2013-14. DU has spent much of the spring dual season in the ITA national rankings, peaking at No. 49 the week after upsetting now-No. 26 Arizona on the road. Wardlaw's Pioneers enter the Summit League Championship with a 14-7 overall record and went 9-0 at home.
 
Joining Wikander and Cai on the All-Summit League Team were four more Denver players, starting with senior Marley Lambert, who moved up to the No. 2 spot in DU's singles lineup this year and went 5-1 in league play. Last year's Summit League Newcomer of the Year and an All-League Honorable Mention, Lambert picked up two more Summit League Doubles Peak Team of the Week honors in 2026, winning 15 total doubles matches this year and adding 16 overall singles wins. Five times, she helped clinch the doubles point for Denver, doing so from the No. 1 position each time and with two different doubles partners.
 
Sophomore Natálie Cinková made the All-Summit League Team for the second year in a row to begin her NCAA career. After playing at the No. 6 singles spot for nearly the entire 2025 season, she made the jump to the Nos. 3 and 4 slots for Denver this year, going 5-1 in Summit League duals and a team-best 26-11 overall on the season. She also achieved the 20-win mark in doubles, picking up 12 of them in dual matches and going 4-1 in league play. Twice, she was named as part of a Summit League Doubles Peak Team of the Week, the first such awards of her career thus far.
 
Senior Zoe Adkins grabbed her fourth All-Summit League Team nod but her first as a Pioneer after transferring to Denver for her final collegiate campaign. Her 5-0 record in singles during league matches was second best on the team and was split across the Nos. 3 and 4 positions. She added three more Summit League wins in doubles, earning two Doubles Peak Team of the Week nods during the spring season. Since joining DU in the fall, she has won 34 combined matches including seven straight-sets singles victories in dual match play and twice rallying from a set down to win the match this spring.
 
Senior Claudia Martinez de Velasco added an All-Summit League Honorable Mention nod, giving her a place on the All-League Team in each of her four seasons at Denver. After missing much of the spring dual season in singles, she returned to the lineup in late February and ended the year with a 3-2 record in duals – but going 2-0 in Summit League play. In doubles, she won 14 total matches on the year and finished with a 4-1 record in league matches and earning two Summit League Doubles Peak Team of the Week awards. Three times, she helped clinch a doubles point for Denver, tied for the most on the roster.
 
This is the ninth time in a row that Denver has picked up six All-Summit League Team honors, leading the league in total honorees. North Dakota and Omaha were the next closest to Denver, each with four All-League members.
 
The No. 66-ranked University of Denver women's tennis team is the No. 1 seed for the 2026 Summit League Women's Tennis Championship in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and will face No. 4-seeded Oral Roberts in the semifinals on Friday, April 24, at 9 a.m. CT/8 a.m. MT.