INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – For the fourth straight year, a pair of Clayton State student-athletes have been recognized with NCAA Division II Degree Completion Awards as women's tennis seniors Darina Drozdova (St. Petersburg, Russia) and Kristiin Mets (Kuressaare, Estonia) have been so recognized.
 
Established in 2001, the program is designed to provide deserving student-athletes with financial assistance that enables them to complete their first undergraduate degree. In order to be eligible to receive an award, an individual must have exhausted their athletic eligibility and received athletics financial aid during the course of their career.
 
Drozdova and Mets have anchored Laker women's tennis for the past four years and have been among the academically strongest student-athletes at Clayton State. Each has earned Peach Belt Conference All-Academic Team honors in the three years they were eligible while delivering other major academic achievements.
 
This year Mets earned the Female Laker Award as the Department's top student-athlete of the year while Drozdova has been All-PBC Academic twice in cross country (2014, 2015). Additionally, as a member of the cross country program she was named a College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District selection in the cross country/track & field category.
 
She accomplished that while competing only in cross country while almost all of her competition competed in that as well as indoor and outdoor track & field.
 
"To hear that Darina and Kristiin have been awarded this scholarship shows their commitment to being great students," said former head coach Le'Trone Mason. "They will graduate in December and I'm extremely happy to see them earn their degrees."
 
In earning this opportunity, Mets and Drozdova join Jessica Matthews (women's track & field) and Avery Shepard (men's soccer) from last year, Emily Walling (women's soccer) and Jessica Smith (women's cross country/track & field) from 2015 and Bena Hanyard (women's basketball) and Samantha Walling (women's cross country/track & field) from 2014.
 
Additionally, they are among 102 student-athletes nationwide to receive this honor. Of those, they are two of a total of seven honorees from Peach Belt Conference member institutions. Those include North Georgia's Joshua Bryan, Megan Gil and Kelsey Hutchins, Augusta's Morgan Ryffe and Georgia College's Anton Waern.
 
To date, the NCAA has awarded nearly $4 million to approximately 1,000 deserving student-athletes. Since its inception 16 years ago, 94-percent of those individuals have gone on to graduate with their first undergraduate degree.
 
2017 NCAA Division II Degree Completion Award Winners
Darina Drozdova, Women's Tennis
Kristiin Mets, Women's Tennis