District tennis hot shots Isabella Crossman and Josh Bavich have each added another prize to their trophy cabinet after picking up awards at the Bendigo Academy of Sport’s annual presentation.
Crossman was awarded the Tennis Athlete of the Year prize, with Bavich winning the Tennis Encouragement Award.
The presentation night recognises the top performers at the Bendigo Academy of Sport each year, with awards across a variety of sports including volleyball, netball, canoeing, athletics and golf.
The awards come at an exciting time for the Rich River Tennis Club duo.
Crossman recently won her first International Tennis Federation event, claiming the Darwin Junior International title last month.
After her win, Crossman remained in Darwin to compete in the J4 NT Junior International, the next level above the J5 tournament she won the previous week.
Crossman won both her round one and round two matches in straight sets, but bowed out in the quarter-finals to number one seed and eventual champion Lily Taylor 6-4, 6-1.
It was a successful two weeks in Darwin overall for Crossman, who has also been selected to the Victorian 15-and-under team which will compete in Brisbane later this year.
Meanwhile, Bavich will soon be heading to the United States to take the next step in his tennis career.
The youngster will play tennis at Judson University in Illinois, about 45 minutes from Chicago. The Echuca College graduate will join the Eagles later this year.
Bavich has a career-high Australian men’s ranking of number 542, number 74 in Australian under-18s, and number 17 in Victorian under-18s.