Sato, Olsen Win ITA Regional Awards

SEATTLE – Women’s tennis standouts Hikaru Sato and Astrid Olsen each won prestigious Regional honors today from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. Sato was named the Northwest Region Senior Player of the Year, while Olsen won the Arthur Ashe Leadership & Sportsmanship Award for the region.
 
Sato is the second Husky to earn Senior Player of the Year honors in the past three seasons, as Vanessa Wong won the award in 2021 (then chose to return for another year in 2022). Olsen is the first Husky winner of the Arthur Ashe award since Denise Dy in 2012. She will now be a candidate for the national honor.
 
This is the first year since 2008 that multiple Huskies have won a Regional honor in the same season.
 
Sato and Olsen were both instrumental in helping the Huskies reach the NCAA Championships second round and finish No. 21 in the final rankings. Sato was named All-Pac-12 First Team, while Olsen was voted to the Second Team.
 
Sato ended the season and her Husky career ranked 110th in singles. She was UW’s No. 1 singles player all season and also played most of the year at the No. 1 doubles spot. The Tokyo native had key wins to help the Huskies to victories against Vanderbilt, Baylor, Arizona State, Arizona, San Diego, and Washington State. She finished with 83 career singles wins, 35 as a Husky, plus 90 career doubles wins.
 
Olsen, the Norwegian junior, played the majority of the season at No. 3 singles for the Huskies. Olsen finished 17-7 in dual singles play and 25-8 overall on the year. She had an eight-match winning streak from Feb. 24 to Apr. 6 that included big wins over Baylor, UCLA, USC, Arizona State, Arizona, San Diego, and BYU. Olsen also has went 9-12 in dual doubles matches.
 
The ITA Arthur Ashe Jr. Leadership and Sportsmanship Award recognizes outstanding student-athletes in all five divisions (NCAA Divisions I, II and III, NAIA and JUCO) at the regional and national level. This prestigious award, which dates back to 1982, is presented to the men’s and women’s national student-athletes who have exhibited outstanding sportsmanship and leadership, as well as scholastic, extracurricular and tennis achievements.