BALTIMORE - According to the latest Academic Progress Rate (APR) report released by the NCAA, the Coppin State women's tennis program received the NCAA's Public Recognition Award for having a rate that ranks in the top 10 percent of all women's tennis programs nationally.

"The academic success of our student-athletes is always a cornerstone priority," said Coppin State Director of Athletics Derrick Ramsey. "The APR is a metric that gives a current snapshot on student-athlete progress toward graduation. I am pleased with the excellence demonstrated by our student-athletes and appreciate their hard work, along with that of our coaches and academic services staff."

The Coppin State women's team earned a perfect 1000 score on the APR scale during the 2009-10 academic year and was one of 72 women's programs across the country to be honored.

"We are very proud of our APR score," Women's tennis head coach Diwani Lewis said. "Obviously, we want to be a winning program on the court, but more importantly, we strive to do things the right way. Our APR score and overall team grade-point average are strong indicators of our success off the court."

The Academic Progress Rate was developed by the NCAA as a way to encourage academic performance of all student-athletes on all sports teams and reward institutions and teams that achieve academic success. The APR calculates an individual institution's level of academic achievement within its athletic program. Based upon the key factors of athletics eligibility and retention, these elements yield a numerical gauge of a programs' academic performance that can be compared to companion sports within a single program, against conference competitors or to national norms.

Every Division I sports team calculates it's APR each academic year, based on the eligibility, retention and graduation of each scholarship student-athlete.

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