Men's Tennis | June 1

CLEVELAND - NIU Huskies Mary Grace Kelly (volleyball) and Carlos Manzanas (men's tennis) were awarded the Mid-American Conference's Medal of Excellence Tuesday night at the Honors Dinner Ceremony at the Renaissance Hotel Cleveland.

The Medal of Excellence is an award presented annually to one male and one female student-athlete from the graduating class of each of the 12 Conference member institutions.
 
To be honored with the Medal of Excellence Award, student-athletes had to participate on the varsity level in a conference sponsored sport and shown evidence of academic success with a minimum 3.50 accumulative grade-point average, exhibited athletics excellence, leadership and service. Selection of the recipients was made by each MAC institution.
 
"The Medal of Excellence Award is a reinforcement of the core values that we as a conference and each of our member institutions all possess with excellence in academics, athletics, leadership and service," said MAC Commissioner, Jon A. Steinbrecher. "We congratulate all of our Medal of Excellence Award winners."

Kelly, the MAC Tournament MVP and First Team All-MAC honoree, started all 31 matches, leading NIU with 3.10 kills per set with a .267 hitting percentage and 3.81 points per set. Kelly impressively averaged 0.65 blocks per set, leading the team with 16 block solos. The senior recorded 36 service aces, posting 22 during the Huskies 16 MAC contests.

The Strongsville, Ohio native was also a named to the MAC's Distinguished Scholar-Athlete team, as well as an honoree to the Academic All-MAC team.

Manzanas, who holds a 4.0 GPA in mechanical engineering, earned 14 singles wins and 16 doubles victories during his senior season. The Madrid, Spain native won the flight three doubles title at the 2016 River Forest Collegiate Invitational with Erich Schuette and also reached the second round of the ITA Regional doubles draw with Bor Schweiger Muzar. 

Earlier this spring, Manzanas earned the 2017 NIU Athletics Male Presidential Award for Academic Excellence. He is NIU's first three-time Academic All-MAC honoree since Frederic Cadieux (2013-15). 

This year marked the fourth year the league has presented the Medals of Excellence. Previous NIU recipients are listed below.

2017: Carlos Manzanas (tennis), Mary Grace Kelly (volleyball)
2016: Drew Hare (football), Emily Naegele (softball)
2015: Rob Sterling (football), Mackenzie Roddy (volleyball)
2014: Ricky Connors (football), Kim Gotlund (gymnastics)