Jana Juricova, a junior at the University of California, Berkeley, has won the 2011 Honda Sports Award in tennis, designating her as the nation’s top collegiate female athlete in that sport. The honor, for which Juricova was also nominated last year, was based on the results of national balloting among 1,000 NCAA member schools as part of The Collegiate Women Sports Awards program, now in its 35th year.

The Honda Sports Award is given annually to the top women athletes in 12 NCAA-sanctioned sports, along with automatic eligibility to become a “Top Three” finalist for Collegiate Female Athlete of the Year. Juricova was voted over three other nominees for the 2011 award: Lauren Embree, a University of Florida sophomore, Maria Sanchez, a University of Southern California senior and Stacey Tan, a Stanford University sophomore. The nominees were selected by NCAA Championship and ITA rankings.

Noted Juricova, “Even though the Honda Sports Award is an individual award, I think it is truly an award that reflects the accomplishments of my teammates and my coaches. It’s an honor for everyone around me, because I couldn’t have done what I did this season without all of the support I had. I think it also reaffirms that the University of California is one of top colleges in the country for student-athletes, and I am very honored to receive this on behalf of my school. It’s always great to receive acknowledgment after a very tough season in which we put in so much hard work. I will cherish this award. It means a lot to me after this season, in particular. When you’re all done with the season, and you look back, and evaluate how you did, and you receive something like this, it certainly brings it all a little more satisfaction.”

A native of the Slovak Republic, the 5’ 11” Juricova captured the title at the 2011 NCAA Women’s Tennis Singles Championships this spring, marking her advance to five consecutive national singles championship matches. She is a three-time ITA All-America certificate recipient and has achieved a 36-4 record in singles with 20-1 mark in dual matches this season. She also advanced to the NCAA doubles semifinals this year and posted a 41-7 record in doubles, with an 18-4 mark in duals. She is a three-time Pac-10 All-Conference first-team selection, eclipsing the 100-win mark in singles and doubles this year. She holds a 119-17 career record in singles for three seasons, 109-25 in doubles matches. Last fall, Juricova received a preseason No. 1 ITA singles ranking, opening her pre-season with four straight wins over ranked opponents to advance to the Riviera/ITA All-American Championship title match. She also advanced to the USTA/ITA National Indoor Championship singles final, collecting seven singles wins over ranked opponents. In doubles, she won last fall’s Cal Nike Invitational title with Mari Andersson, advanced to the All-American doubles semifinal and won the USTA/ITA Northwest Regional doubles championship.

An outstanding student-athlete, Juricova maintains a 3.637 GPA, with a major in Political Economy of Industrial Societies .