Cerritos Tennis Player Prokopchuk Chosen 2017-18 State Women's Athlete of the Year

The South Coast Conference's Kseniia Prokopchuk, a freshman tennis player at Cerritos College, was selected as California Community College Sports Information Association 2017-2018 State Women's Athlete of the Year. The award, voted on by members of the CCCSIA Executive Board, are in their seventh year of existence recognizing a top student-athlete from each gender. Butte baseball player Connor Blair won the Men's AOTY.

An international student-athlete from the Ukraine, Prokopchuk became just the fourth player in California Community College women's tennis history to win the Triple Crown by accomplishing CCCAA state individual titles in singles and doubles while also playing for the state team champion. The last person to accomplish the feat previously was 13 years ago by Orange Coast's Michelle Esquivel.

In the state team championship final, playing at #3 singles, Prokopchuk swept her De Anza opponent, 6-0, 6-0. Prokopchuck and doubles partner Lisa Suzuki went a perfect 30-0 in doubles matches in the 2018 season. They were also South Coast Conference doubles champions. Kseniia is part of a CCCAA first as her brother Alex also won the Triple Crown on the Cerritos men's side--a brother-sister feat never accomplished prior and likely never to be matched.

Prokopchuk won the singles title despite coming into the state tournament as the No. 6 seed. She was 31-2 in singles play for the season. The 20-year-old business administration major plans on returning for a second season with the Falcons. She said she would like to eventually transfer to UCLA.