TEMPE, Ariz. –University of South Alabama senior Tuki Jacobs (Windhoek, Namibia) was named the Southern Region ITA/Arthur Ashe Leadership and Sportsmanship Award winner by the tennis organization on Monday evening. The national award winners will be released on Tuesday, May 23rd.

The ITA/Arthur Ashe, Jr. Award for Leadership and Sportsmanship Award takes into account a player's tennis and scholastic achievements and extracurricular endeavors.  Just as Arthur Ashe was a great player and humanitarian, the award (which dates to 1984) recognizes players who excelled on and off the court during their college careers. Sportsmanship, leadership and character are also important criteria.

The electrical engineering major a cumulative GPA of 3.7 and will graduate next fall.  An active member of the SAAC, Jacobs was mostly involved with the Student Affairs SAAC team.
 
Jacobs has been named to the Sun Belt Conference Commissioner's List each year and was also selected to the school's dean's list (fall 2013 and spring 2014) and president's list (fall 2014 and spring 2016) twice and the dean's honor list (fall 2015, fall 2016 and spring 2017) three times. In 2015 he was an ITA Scholar-Athlete award winner.

Winning the conference's player of the year award for the past two seasons, Jacobs has notched a 24-6 record overall this season and a 15-4 in dual matches. Splitting time with teammate Juan Cruz Soria (San Juan, Argentina) on the top two flights, Jacobs went 11-3 on court No. 1 and 6-1 on court No. 2.

Ranked in the top 100 in the ITA singles rankings in all but one week of the spring season, Jacobs won 13 of his first 14 matches to start the season and was ranked as high as No. 50. He knocked off three ranked opponents during that time: No. 71 Aziz Dougaz of Florida State (6-4, 1-6, 6-4), No. 74 North Florida's Jack Findel-Hawkins (3-6, 6-2, 6-3) and No. 84 Zack Kennedy of Georgia State (4-6, 6-2, 6-4). His win over Findel-Hawkins helped him earn conference player of the week for the third time in his career.

Jacobs notched another win over Kennedy (2-6, 7-6 (7-1), 6-3) in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament Finals and has won his last four singles matches.

In the fall Jacobs split a pair of matches in the Saint Francis Health System ITA Men's All-American Championships including win over No. 4 seed and then No. 57 Ryan Peniston of Memphis in the qualifying rounds..

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