"We are excited to move forward in this tournament," head coach CJ Weber said. "We will focus on the exact same things that we have all year. Regardless of who we play, we expect a really tough battle. I'm looking forward to watching this group compete again."
Last Time Out:
The Eagles are coming off closing their portion of the season with a 4-1 win over Kennesaw State. It was also the last regular season matches for seniors Felipe Escobar, Mateo Ruiz, Ezequiel Cerrini and Javier Fernandez as it was senior night.
As a result of the win, the Eagles won the A-SUN Regular Season Championship and have claimed the #1 seed in the conference tournament as well as a first round bye.
On doubles, junior Marcelo Tebet and Juan Montes lead the way with a 8-1 record at #2 doubles. They would defeat Fermin Calvo Barcelo and Drew Lahey 6-3.
Not too far behind are Escobar and Ruiz who are currently 9-5 in doubles play all at #1 doubles. The seniors defeated Harvey Maughan and Lucas deTorres Curth 6-3.
Meanwhile in singles play Tebet, junior Feliksas Sakalauskas and senior Javier Fernandez all have claimed double digit wins (12: Sakalauskas and Fernandez, 11: Tebet). Fernandez has 92 career wins under his belt.
Conference Standings and Seeding:
#1 FGCU (12-8, 7-0 A-SUN)
#2 Liberty (12-10, 6-1 A-SUN)
#3 UNF (12-10, 5-2 A-SUN)
#4 Kennesaw State (10-12, 4-3 A-SUN)
#5 Stetson (11-11, 3-4 A-SUN)
#6 Lipscomb (7-13, 2-5 A-SUN)
Because of their conference record North Alabama (3-16, 1-6 A-SUN) and NJIT (4-15, 0-7 A-SUN) are ineligible to compete in the conference tournament as only six seeds can compete.
Award Winners:
Announced on April 15, Sakalauskas was named the last A-SUN Player of the week and the second Eagle for the weekly Accolade (Fernandez, 4/3/19).
"Feliksas has had an unbelievable year from the start of the fall through the conference season," said Weber. "For him to clinch the regular season title for us was really fitting, as well as capping off the A-SUN regular season undefeated. He's an incredibly hard worker and I'm very happy and proud of him. I know he's hungry for more."
Player of the Year:
The A-SUN Player of the Year turned out to be sophomore Nicaise Muamba from Liberty. Muamba finished the regular season with a 16-5 dual record (15-5 @ #1 singles).
Doubles Pair of the Year:
Lipscomb's juniors Victor Chaw & Pablo Caffarena claimed A-SUN Doubles Pair of the Year. Chaw and Caffarena went 12-3 in doubles play.
Coach of the Year:
I said that coach Weber was going to be named A-SUN Coach of the Year and it turned out that I was right on the money. The unanimous selection for Weber was his third in his career.
"I'm so proud of this overall group of guys," Weber said. "We have a very tight-knit chemistry on our team and we have worked very hard to get to this position. After a very challenging season, I know there were moments when the guys could have been tempted to give up, but they persevered and played their best tennis during conference season. We have more work to do and the task ahead will not be easy. We have to be ready, and we will be ready."
Liberty claimed unanimous A-SUN Freshman of the Year as Josh Wilson earned the title after finishing 16-6 in dual play (12-4 @ #2 singles).
A-SUN All-Conference First Team:
Sophomore Juan Montes was the lone Eagle on the A-SUN All-Conference First Team. Montes competed at the No. 1 singles spot for each conference match and spent a majority of the non-conference schedule there, as well. The sophomore notched a 3-3 record in conference play and battled into three sets in all of his losses. He and junior teammate Marcelo Tebet earned a 5-1 mark at the No. 2 spot in A-SUN doubles play. Overall, Montes finished the regular season with 20 wins. This is just the eighth time in program history that an Eagle has been named on the A-SUN All-Conference First Team.
"Juan has had a great first year as an Eagle. He had to sit for an entire year to wait for this to happen and he capitalized," Weber said. "He's played at No. 1 for most of the year, which is not easy to do in your first year of collegiate tennis. I'm very proud of him and he has a great career in front of him."
Other players that joined Montes on the first team were Muamba and Wilson (Liberty), Chaw (Lipscomb) and seniors Fermin Calvo Barcelo (Kennesaw) and Sahlil Deshmukh (UNF).
"I can't say enough about Fermin and his leadership this season," Kennesaw Director of Tennis Matt Emery said. "Being the defending the A-SUN Conference Player of the Year, he played with a target on his back all season and that is not an easy thing to do. He will leave an incredible legacy at Kennesaw State.
A-SUN All-Conference Second Team:
Senior Felipe Escobar and junior Felipe Ramirez were named on the A-SUN All-Conference Second Team.
Escobar's all-conference selection is the first of his career at FGCU. The senior finished the regular season with a 6-1 mark in conference singles play, primarily at the third spot in the lineup. Four of those victories were earned in straight-set matches. He and senior Mateo Ruiz were one of just two pairs to post an undefeated record at the No. 1 spot in conference doubles play, finishing 4-0. Escobar and Ruiz were one of 32 pairings selected to the ITA Regional Championship in the fall and went as far as the semifinal round. The duo also won the Bedford Cup at the USTA National Campus last September.
For Ramirez, the all-conference team nod is the third of his career. He was named A-SUN Freshman of the Year in 2017 and earned a spot on the first team. Last season, he landed on the second team. Ramirez posted a 4-1 mark in conference singles play at the second spot in the lineup. He won in straight-set matches three times and was leading 7-6 (9-7), 4-3 in his final match of the regular season against Kennesaw State when the Eagles clinched. He and junior Feliksas Sakalauskas went 5-1 at the third spot in conference doubles play.
"Pipe and Feli are great representatives for the second team," Weber said. "They each only had one loss in conference play and that's very nice to have out of players who compete high in the lineup. Both of them are great competitors and leaders for this team."
Caffarena (Lipscomb), freshman Dominik Barton (UNF), senior Till Von Winning (UNF) and sophomore Antoine Sanchez (Stetson) were also named on the second team.
All-Freshman Team:
Although no one from FGCU made the A-SUN All-Freshman Team, the members that did make it were Wilson (Liberty), Barton (UNF), Gaston Muhammad (Kennesaw), Oscar Meslin (North Alabama), Christian Mills (Stetson) and Clement Hamel (Stetson).
"Gaston has improved as much in one season as any player I have coached," Emery said. "He is one of the elite athletes in the country and I have no doubt he will keep getting better. The sky is the limit for him."
All-Academic Team:
The players that made the A-SUN All-Academic Team were Caffarena (Lipscomb), Deshmukh (UNF), junior Chase Burton (Liberty) and seniors Lucas de Torres Curth (Kennesaw), Zac Castagna (NJIT) and Jason Pimenta (North Alabama). Burton was also name A-SUN Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
"No one deserves this award more than Lucas," Emory stated. "He represents the qualities of a true student-athlete. He is one of those guys who will be very successful in whatever field he chooses to go into simply because of his work ethic. His leadership both on and off the court as well as in the classroom will be missed."
The Eagles will face #4 seed Kennesaw State in the semifinals. Kennesaw (11-12) defeated #5 seed and host Stetson (11-12) by a score of 4-2.
Scouting Kennesaw:
After their win last weekend, the Eagles improved to a 7-4 all-time record against Kennesaw State.
Calvo Barcelo, the reigning A-SUN Player of the Year, was this year's only two-time First Team All-Conference selection and finished with a 3-2 conference record at the top singles spot in the lineup.
Muhammad was named to the league's All-Freshmen Team after finishing 1-2 in A-SUN singles play.
The highest the Owls have ever finished in the conference standings was third back in 2017. The team has only made it to the semifinals twice (2016, 2018).
The other side of the bracket:
No. 2 Liberty will face the winner of No. 3 UNF vs. No. 4 Lipscomb at 5 p.m. Friday night. Whichever team emerges from that meeting will face off against the team that wins the Eagles' semifinal match. The championship is set for 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 20 and will be streamed on ESPN+.
No comments:
Post a Comment