The Hope College women's tennis team has been selected to receive the 2015 Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Team Sportsmanship Award for the month of April.

The Hope College women's tennis team has been selected to receive the 2015 Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Team Sportsmanship Award for the month of April.

Coach Adam Ford’s Flying Dutch joins the Williams, Massachusetts men’s tennis team as honorees this month.

The ITA National Team Sportsmanship Award is a monthly award that goes to one men's and one women's team that have exemplified outstanding sportsmanship, character and ethical conduct in the true spirit of competition and collegiate tennis.

The winners are selected by the ITA Ethics and Infractions Committee from nominations received from all ITA member institutions (NCAA Divisions I, II and III, NAIA and Junior/Community Colleges). This monthly award began in 2004.

“Winning an award like this means a lot,” Ford said. “We try so hard in practice and in matches to be the best sports possible. We are far from perfect, but to know that a team nominated us for this award is a reminder that we are focused on the correct character traits.”

The Flying Dutch were nominated for the ITA Team Sportsmanship for competing at the pinnacle of ethical conduct and for good sportsmanship over many years, and his team is said to be “a throwback to the days of old when tennis was all about honor and a good fair fight on the court.”

“We spend a lot of time working on ourselves as people,” Ford said. “We ask the girls the question, 'What person are you becoming because of the sport of tennis?’ We focus only on the things we can control, not the things that we can’t.”

Team members include senior Carli Capestany of Hudsonville, Michigan; junior Claire Cooper of Williamston, Michigan; junior Anna Garcia of Battle Creek, junior Marie Holaway of Holland, Michigan, sophomore Nancy Benda of Birmingham, Michigan; sophomore Paige Courts of Caledonia, Michigan; sophomore Kelly Daniel of Zeeland, Michigan; sophomore Kate Mader of Granger, Indiana; freshman Natalie Rahrig of Fort Wayne, Indiana; and freshman Amanda Susnak of Lowell, Michigan.