Sun Devil student athletes of the month announced

Junior TJ Bellama of the men's tennis team and sophomore Clarissa Andorfer-Lopez of the softball team have been named Student-Athletes of the Month for September, the Office of Student-Athlete Development announced Monday.

Bellama, a Kinesiology major, has a 3.74 GPA and is a member of the Barrett Honors College. He is also a Dean's Scholar and has been a Maroon and Gold Scholar in each of the four semesters he has been at ASU. He also earned First-Team Pac-10 All-Academic Honors for the 2006-07 season, balancing his academics while compiling an 18-16 overall record for the tennis team.

In addition to his academic work, he is a member of the Pat Tillman Leadership Through Action Program for 2007-08 and the Marketing and Promotion Chair of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).

Bellama also serves the community in a variety of ways, participating in programs such as Fridays-At-Home, Kids Ball, and New Student-Athlete Orientation.

"T.J. is the epitome of why we want to coach," men's tennis team head coach Lou Belken said of Bellama. "He is the organizational impetus in making sure our team supports and attends the events of all other teams.

"As an athlete, he is a dream. From the moment he stepped foot on campus, he has set the bar for `hustle' in our program. TJ is truly the unique individual that makes all those around him better. In 25 years, I have never had a junior be named as team captain. TJ will be the first."

Andorfer-Lopez, a Biology major, finished her first year on campus with a 3.63 GPA while playing in 38 games and scoring 14 runs as the softball team advanced to the College World Series.

She earned Scholar Baller honors for both the fall and spring semesters during the 2006-07 academic year, and she is also a member of the Barrett Honors College.

She also did a volunteer internship during this past summer with InNexus Biotechnology Inc., a drug-developing company for cancer therapy, and she was recently accepted into the Pre-Minority Access to Research Centers (Pre-MARC) scholarship program at ASU, where she will be doing cancer research this year.

Andorfer-Lopez was also one of the 25 students selected last year for the Leadership Scholarship Program that is headed by Dr. Christine Wilkinson.

Through this program, she helped to build a library in April for a Phoenix underprivileged foster home, contributing over 2000 books and doing reading workshops.

"Clarissa is a tremendous leader and a great example of what it takes to be a top student-athlete," softball head coach Clint Myers said. "We really appreciate all she means to our program."