VALDOSTA, Ga. – Valdosta State senior men's tennis standout Takeshi Taco earned firs team Academic All-America® as selected by College Sports Communicators, while senior Boruch Skierkier was a third team selection, announced Wednesday.  
 
Skierkier and Taco become the 33^rd and 34^th Blazer student-athletes to earn Academic All-America® honors in program history, while Taco is the first Blazer student-athlete to earn first team honors since Morgan Hill in softball in 2021.  In addition, Skierkier and Taco are the third and fourth Blazer men's tennis players to earn the honor from VSU as Eric Anderson earned third team honors in 1991 and current men's tennis graduate assistant Luca Mack earned second team honors in 2023 and 2024.  
 
VSU has had at least one Academic All-America honoree for eight-straight years dating back to fall 2018 as an institution. 
 
Taco, a native of Lima, Peru, finished the season ranked No. 1 nationally in singles helping lead VSU to back-to-back national titles and the fourth national title in program history in 2025.  He earned Gulf South Conference Top Ten honors as the award recognizes the top female and top male student-athletes for their athletic, academic, and extracurricular achievements, during the 2024-25 academic year.  Taco finished with a 3.69 GPA in Applied Economics.  
 
He earned first team all-GSC honors for the second-straight year, became the third Blazer to earn the Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship and Leadership Award presented by the ITA.  He was named the Herb and Linda Reinhard VSU Athletic Male Student-Athlete of the Year for 2024-25 and is ranked in the top five nationally in both singles and doubles. 
 
Taco finished his outstanding career at 57-6 in singles and 26-1 this year as he won the ITA Fall National Championship.  In doubles, he finished 39-13 in his two years and went 21-4 this season with senior Xaveam Van Wijk as the tandem finished fourth nationally.  He will earn ITA All-America honors in both singles and doubles based on his finish as mentioned above.  Last season, Taco earned ITA All-America honors in singles.
 
Skierkier, a native of Clorinda, Formosa, Argentina, also earned first team all-league selection this season and last year as well. Skierkier went 28-4 record in singles in 2024-25 as he finished sixth nationally.  He and junior Jan Skerbatis went 17-9 in doubles this season.  For his career at VSU, he finished 58-5 in singles and 42-13 in doubles.  He earned ITA All-America honors in 2024 in singles and will earn ITA All-America honors in 2025 in singles as well.  Skierkier finished with a 3.73 GPA in International Business.
 
He also was and instrumental part of the Blazers' back-to-back national titles and both players helped VSU to a current 42-match winning streak dating back to the final 16 matches of last season and the program's first undefeated season in 2024-25, going 26-0.