VALDOSTA, Ga. – The Valdosta State men's and women's tennis teams were well represented on the Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-America Teams, announced Wednesday.  The national champion Blazer men's team had five selections, while the women's team had one.  
 
Blazer senior Takeshi Taco earned All-America honors in both singles and doubles and was named ITA Player of the Year finishing at the top spot nationally in singles.  He and senior teammate Xaveam Van Wijk earned All-America honors in doubles as the tandem finished fourth nationally.  
 
Senior Boruch Skierkier earned his second ITA All-America honor in singles finishing sixth nationally, while doubles duo of senior Edgar Destouet and graduate student Arthur Bord finished eighth nationally.  On the women's side, sophomore Natalie Rainke earned All-America accolades finishing 15^th nationally in singles.  
 
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 also earned First Team Academic All-America honors as selected by College Sports Communicators (CSC). 
 
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.  Taco 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 Van Wijk.  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.  Skierkier went 28-4 record in singles in 2024-25 as he finished sixth nationally for ITA All-America honors in back-to-back seasons.  For his career at VSU, he finished 58-5 in singles and 42-13 in doubles.  Skierkier finished with a 3.73 GPA in International Business and was named a third team Academic All-America honoree as selected by CSC.  
 
He also was an 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.  
 
Van Wijk, a native of Willemstad, Curacao, finished the season 11-3 in singles and went 27-7 in doubles, while going 21-4 with Taco as mentioned above.  For his career, Van Wijk has helped the Blazers to back-to-back titles and went 18-6 in singles and 40-18 in doubles. 
 
Destouet and Bord came to VSU this year and both made immediate impacts helping the team.  The tandem went 23-4 in doubles. Destouet, a native of Bordeaux, France, earned first team all-league honors and somehow narrowly missed out on All-America honors finishing 21^st with a staggering 31-1 record in singles play.  The top 20 in singles in the final ITA rankings earn All-America honors.  His only loss was to Barry's Yan Kodjoed in the fall of the ITA Fall Regionals.  From there, he won 29-straight matches, including a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 thriller in the national title match versus Washburn giving VSU a 3-2 lead in team scoring at that point.  
 
Bord also of Bordeaux, France, went 7-0 in singles and had the outstanding season in doubles with Destouet.  Bord transferred to VSU this year from the University of Findlay in Ohio, while Destouet came to VSU from University of Indianapolis, who VSU defeated in the national quarterfinals as Destouet's match against his former team clinched the team win for the Blazers in a 7-6 (7-2), 4-6, 6-2 win.
 
For the men's tennis team, the Blazers now have over 70 All-American selections in program history marking the most of any program at the school all under the direction of head coach John Hansen who earned his 15^th GSC Men's Tennis Coach of the Year honor in 2025, while he was inducted into the GSC Hall of Fame last month. 
 
Rainke, a native of the Czech Republic, capped an outstanding sophomore season with ITA All-America honors as she went 15-7 in singles this season at the top spot in the lineup.  Rainke earned first team all-league honors for the second-straight year in 2025.  She had arguably her biggest win of her career on Apr. 9, 2025, when she upset No. 2-ranked Dana Heimen of Flagler College 7-6 (8-6), 3-6, 6-2 as the Blazers upset the No. 4-ranked Saints.  Rainke is 25-19 in singles for her career and 26-21 in doubles. 
 
She is the 24^th All-America selection for the women's tennis team and the first for the women's program since Bea Morales in 2017.  For Hansen's career he has over 90 All-America honorees between the two programs.