Austin, Texas – Winona State University tennis student-athlete Kendra Kappes has been named to the 2019-20 CoSIDA Academic All-America® First Team for her strong performances in the classroom and on the court.

Kappes, a First-Team honoree this year, has earned back-to-back Academic All-America awards in her Warrior career, having been tabbed Third Team in 2018-19. She is one of sixteen women who are repeat performers on this year's at-large teams and she is one of 20 student-athletes on the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Division II At-Large Women's Team who have earned a 4.00 GPA. The CoSIDA Academic All-America® Division II Women's At-Large First Team had an overall 3.94 GPA.

The senior from Neenah, Wisconsin is a three-time All-Conference selection in her WSU career.  A significant portion of the 2019-20 NCAA Division II tennis season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic; Kappes was 7-5 in singles play and 11-1 in doubles competition at the time of the season cancellation. 

In the classroom, Kappes is a Biology major and has earned a perfect 4.0 GPA at Winona State University over that time.  She is also a two-time winner of the NSIC Elite 18 Award, presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative GPA the NSIC conference tennis post-season.

The Academic All-America® program is being financially supported by the NCAA Division II national governance structure to assist CoSIDA with handling the awards fulfillment aspects for the 2019-20 Division II Academic All-America® teams program.

The CoSIDA All-America At-Large Team includes student-athletes from the sports of tennis, fencing, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, swimming and diving, water polo, bowling, crew, field hockey and wrestling.

Kappes joins Caleb Wagner (men's basketball) and Jordyn Kleman and Alison Nowak (softball) as Winona State University student-athletes to be named CoSIDA Academic All-Americans in 2019-20.