MOSCOW, Idaho ? Andrey Potapkin has been selected as a National Rookie of the Year award finalist by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.

Potapkin, a freshman from Moscow, Russia, earned ITA Rookie of the Year honors for the Mountain region. The honor gives him automatic consideration for the National Rookie of the Year award, which will be announced in the coming weeks.

“This is great recognition for Andrey,” Idaho coach Jeff Beaman said. “The Mountain region is one of the strongest and this shows his potential to be one of the top players in the nation in his upcoming years at Idaho.”

Potapkin earned first team all-Western Athletic Conference singles honors while the doubles pair of Potapkin and Stanislav Glukhov was chosen second team all-WAC. Potapkin tallied an impressive 23-8 record in singles during his first year as a Vandal. In the fall, he took home the championship at the Gonzaga/Eastern Washington Classic and finished second at the MCC Clay Court Collegiate Invitational.

Potapkin's successes continued into the dual match season. Playing at No. 1 singles, he went 12-6 in the spring, which included a win over No. 81 Luke Shields of Boise State.

The No. 1 doubles team of Potapkin and Glukhov was solid at the top of the lineup for Idaho with a 17-10 record overall. The Vandal pair won the doubles championship at the Gonzaga/Eastern Washington Classic and went 9-8 in the spring.