Racers Abound In 2025 All-MVC Tennis Honors

The Murray State women's tennis program is back-to-back champions in the Missouri Valley Conference and well represented in All-MVC honors released by the league office in St. Louis.

At the top are All-MVC First Team honors for Murray State's Yu Kikawa and Paola Campigotto and also a pair of doubles teams including Valeria Chaikovskaia and Bruna Melato and Campigotto and Varya Alexeyeva.

Chaikovskaia and Yuna Kadowaki were named All-MVC Second Team.

"We always talk about winning the big trophy and all of the other things will come," Caetano said. "We played very good, all of our players. They pushed each other, focused on the important things, like getting better. It's a statement on where our program is right now. Getting those recognitions and getting the regular season title, I think speaks volumes to the season we had."

As for Paola Campigotto, Coach Caetano holds special praise for the Brazilian (Caetano is also from Brazil) and the veteran leadership she has provided, not to mention how she maxed out her talent as a Racer.

"It's one of those stories every coach likes to tell," Caetano stated. "Paola was very shy her freshman year, she wasn't in the starting lineup. But every time I needed her in there, she stepped up. She just grew up and became our team captain. She helped our younger players and she was demanding in the right way. On the court, she's in the top-5 all-time in our program in winning percentage and still has a chance to get to 125 career wins and hopefully she will have a big weekend and so will our team."

The Racers have won 18-straight MVC matches in the last two seasons and two MVC regular season titles as they head into the MVC Tournament this weekend in Valparaiso, Indiana. As the No. 1 seed, the Racers play in the semifinals Saturday at 10 a.m. Central Time against either No. 4 Belmont or No. Northern Iowa.

2025 Missouri Valley All-Conference Team
Player of the Year - Mayu Ushio, UIC
Freshman of the Year - Edit Cosmo, UIC
Newcomer of the Year - Yuna Kadowaki, Murray State
Coach of the Year - Jorge Caetano, Murray State

First Team
Flight 1 - Mayu Ushio, UIC
Flight 2 - Mariia Pukhina, Bradley
Flight 3 - Ruby Tseng, Bradley
Flight 4 - Yu Kikawa, Murray State
Flight 5 - Nicole Iosio, Illinois State
Flight 6 - Paola Campigotto, Murray State
Doubles 1 - Valeria Chaikovskaia and Bruna Melato, Murray State
Doubles 2 - Elena Jankulovska and Emma Lindh, Illinois State
Doubles 3 - Paola Campigotto and Varya Alexeyeva, Murray State

Second Team
Flight 1 - Valeria Chaikovskaia, Murray State
Flight 2 - Edit Cosmo, UIC
Flight 3 - Yuna Kadowaki, Murray State
Flight 4 - Andjela Razantovic, UNI
Flight 5 - Lilian Kelly, Valparaiso
Flight 6 - Sophie Lowe, Illinois State

Follow the Racers on Twitter (@MSURacers), Instagram (@RacersAthletics) and Facebook to stay up-to-date on all that is happening with Murray State Athletics. Follow MSU women's tennis at @RacersWTennis.

Players Mentioned

Varvara Alexeyeva

Paola Campigotto

Valeria Chaikovskaia

Yuna Kadowaki

Yu Kikawa

Bruna Melato

Murray State University