Case Western Reserve University senior Lily McCloskey was named to the College Sports Communicators Women's Tennis Academic All-America First Team for the third consecutive year, the organization announced on Tuesday.
McCloskey is the first CWRU student-athlete from any sport to receive three Academic All-America First Team honors from the CSC. She was already the third Academic All-American in program history, joining former Spartans Hannah Kassaie (2023, 2024) and Madeleine Paolucci (2021). The 2022-23 academic year was the first in which the sports of men's and women's tennis had their own teams. In prior years, the sports were included on the At-Large teams.
Since the inception of the program, 122 CWRU student-athletes have earned 178 Academic All-America selections. McCloskey is the fourth honoree this academic year for Case Western Reserve.
McCloskey finished her career with four All-America honors, playing in the national doubles championship in each of her four seasons on campus. This season, playing at first singles and first doubles for CWRU, she earned All-University Athletic Association First Team (singles) and All-UAA Second Team (doubles) selections to become the second eight-time All-UAA honoree in program history. McCloskey went 15-9 this season in singles play, playing in the round of 32 of the national championship, and 22-6 in doubles play, advancing to the national quarterfinals. She finished her career with a 56-31 (.644) record in singles matches and 85-24 (.780) mark in doubles matches with her 85 doubles wins and 141 combined wins the most in program history.
McCloskey, who received her Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering degree last month, graduated with a 4.0 cumulative grade point average. She has received UAA All-Academic Teams three times in her career and recently received the 2025 ITA Division III Central Region Arthur Ashe Leadership & Sportsmanship Award.
The CSC Academic All-America program separately recognizes women's tennis honorees in four divisions — NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, and NAIA. The Division III CSC Academic All-America programs are partially financially supported by the NCAA Division III national governance structures to assist CSC with handling the awards fulfillment aspects for the 2024-25 Divisions III Academic All-America programs.
To be eligible for Academic All-America consideration, a student-athlete must maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.50 on a scale of 4.00, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings, be selected to an Academic All-District team, and have been in the lineup for at least 70 percent of an institution's days of competition.
The CWRU women's tennis team finished the 2024-25 season with a record of 13-7 in dual matches.
