COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The last point Lucciana Perez needed to win was never really in doubt. Down 3-1 in the national semifinal against No. 1 Georgia, with the match on her racquet and the crowd at the Magill Tennis Complex expecting the Bulldogs to close it out, Perez methodically dismantled her opponent 6-1, 6-7, 6-3 and sent Texas A&M to its third straight NCAA title-match appearance. That was the moment that explained everything that came after it.
On Tuesday, the Collegiate Women’s Sports Awards announced that Perez, a junior from Lima, Peru, had won the 2026 Honda Sports Award for tennis – the sport’s highest individual collegiate honor – chosen by a vote of administrators from more than 1,000 NCAA member schools. Texas A&M Athletics confirmed the award Tuesday, making Perez the second Aggie tennis player to claim the distinction, following Mary Stoiana’s 2024 win.
The Honda Sports Award, presented annually by the CWSA for the past 50 years, honors the top women athletes across 12 NCAA-sanctioned sports and designates its recipient as “the best of the best in collegiate athletics.” As the tennis winner, Perez advances as a finalist for the 2026 Honda Cup – the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year – to be presented live on CBS Sports Network on Monday, July 27, in New York City.
The numbers Perez put up this season resist easy comparison. She finished 28-0 in singles, including a 13-0 mark in SEC regular-season matches and a 7-0 record against ITA top 10 opponents. She closed the year ranked No. 1 in the nation – only the second Aggie to reach that position, joining Stoiana. The junior was named SEC Player of the Year following Texas A&M’s first-ever undefeated regular season. What that 28-0 record does not show is how it was built: not against cupcakes, but against the best programs in the country, often in the matches that could not afford to be lost.
“What an honor for Lucciana and it could not happen to a better person,” Texas A&M head coach Mark Weaver said in the team’s official statement. “I’m so happy to see all her hard work and determination pay off and earn such a distinguished award. Thank you to my entire staff for all their efforts in helping Lucciana and all our student-athletes reach their goals and full potential.”
Weaver’s praise is notable for what it emphasizes – not talent, but determination. Those around the program have described Perez, born May 8, 2005, as the most consistent worker on the team, a player who arrived at Texas A&M having already reached the French Open Junior final in 2023 and then built an entirely new game in College Station. She was, by all accounts, better in her junior year than she had ever been, having reworked weaknesses during the fall under a coaching staff willing to dismantle things before rebuilding them.
The award also carries a dimension that the box scores cannot capture. Perez is one of a small number of Peruvian athletes to win a major individual honor at the NCAA Division I level, and her emergence coincides with a broader expansion of Latin American talent in American collegiate tennis. She has been active in community service throughout her time in College Station, including events designed to introduce local children to the sport – an effort that, according to the CWSA, factored into consideration alongside her on-court performance.
The finalists Perez outpolled were formidable. Reese Brantmeier of North Carolina, Carmen Herea of Texas, and Luciana Perry of Ohio State each had strong cases. Herea, a Texas sophomore, finished the season ranked No. 3 nationally. Perry had secured her third singles All-America honor. The fact that Perez won going away – selected by school administrators rather than a small panel – reflects how visible her season had become across the entire Division I landscape.
Texas A&M’s program has now produced four Honda Sports Award recipients across all sports: Lori Stoll in softball in 1983, Ashlee Pistorius in soccer in 2008, Stoiana in tennis in 2024, and now Perez. That the Aggies have placed two tennis players on the list in three years says something about what Weaver has built in College Station – a program that has won two NCAA national championships in that same stretch, claimed five consecutive SEC regular-season crowns, and appeared in three straight NCAA title matches. Eastern Herald covered their dominant run to the 2026 championship, a 4-1 win over Auburn in Athens that ended a season very few programs could have navigated without losing a step.
None of that happens without Perez at the top of the lineup, refusing to lose. What becomes of her after this junior season remains an open question: she is already ranked professionally, having competed on the ITF circuit, and the calculus of her senior year – whether to remain in College Station or pursue the tour full time – will be one of the more consequential decisions in college tennis in the months ahead. The Collegiate Women Sports Awards have not historically served as a launching pad toward professional careers, but Perez is a different kind of case: a player with professional rankings already on her record, now adding the sport’s highest collegiate honor to a resume that, at 21, already spans two continents.
The Honda Cup vote, set for July 27 in New York, will determine whether she claims the title of top collegiate woman athlete in the country across all sports. That is less certain than anything she encountered on a tennis court this year. But after 28 matches without a loss, uncertainty seems like an appropriate place to leave her story for now.
