Hannah Kassaie of CWRU Wins Second Elite 90 Award for NCAA Division III Women's Tennis
Case Western Reserve University junior Hannah Kassaie was named the recipient of the Elite 90 Award for the 2024 NCAA Division III Women's Tennis Championship, receiving the honor for the second consecutive season. Kassaie collected her award prior to the NCAA Individual Championship matches on Saturday in St Louis.
The Elite 90, an award founded by the NCAA, recognizes the true essence of the student-athlete by honoring the individual who has reached the pinnacle of competition at the national championship level in their sport, while also achieving the highest academic standard among their peers. The Elite 90 is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the site of the finals for each of the NCAA championships.
Eligible student-athletes are sophomores or above academically who have participated in a sport for at least two years with their school. All ties are broken by the number of credits completed.
Kassaie, majoring in nutrition, has a 4.0 cumulative grade point average.
With her second career Elite 90 honor, Kassaie becomes the second Spartan student-athlete to win multiple awards, joining men's tennis player Sahil Dayal (2022, 2023, 2024). Eight CWRU student-athletes have won the award since it was first given out in 2009-10. Of the 11 all-time honors for Spartans, six have been in the last two academic years.
Kassaie is the seventh multiple-time Elite 90 Award Winner for Women's Tennis and the third in Division III, joining Carnegie Mellon's Katie Cecil (2013, 2014) and Washington and Lee's Brooke Donnelly (2016, 2017).
Case Western Reserve's 11 NCAA Elite 90 Award honors are tied for third among Division III programs all-time. MIT leads with 22 honors and WashU is second with 17.
Kassaie qualified for the NCAA Individual Championships for the third consecutive season, reaching the second round of the singles tournament and first round of the doubles tournament this year. She earned two All-America honors, becoming the first six-time All-American in program history.
This season, she went 24-5 in singles play, matching her program record for singles victories set during the 2021-22 season, and 26-4 in doubles play, the most doubles wins in program history. Kassaie completed her career with a singles record of 68-11, the most wins and highest winning percentage in program history, and a doubles record of 63-15, the third-most victories for a Spartan.
Kassaie helped the team reach the Third Round of the NCAA Championship for the second time in program history this year, defeating 14th-ranked Carleton in the Second Round, 5-0. The Spartans ended the 2023-24 season with a record of 15-7 in dual matches.
For more information on the Elite 90 award winners, log on to https://www.ncaa.com/elite-90