All-SWAC Men’s Tennis teams released
SWAC.org
BIRMINGHAM, AL – The 2017 All-SWAC Men’s Tennis Teams were released on Thursday by the conference office.
Jackson State earned the most recognition highlighted by four honors on the All-Conference Singles First Team and an additional pairing on the All-Conference Doubles First Team.
Andrey Alawi (4-1) made the No. 1 singles spot, Fritz Jacobs (3-1) was the top player at the No. 3 position while Stylianos Gkontsans (4-0 at the No. 5 position) and Vishu Prasad (4-0 at the No. 6 position) rounded out the All-SWAC Singles First Team.
Alawi and Federico Mendieta (5-0) partnered for the No. 2 Doubles First Team selection.
Alcorn State secured two spots on the All-Conference First Team including the large individual award as Kert Kilumets was named the SWAC Men’s Tennis Player of the Year after running a combined record of 5-0 in conference play among two separate positions (2-0 at the No. 1 position and 3-0 at the No. 2 position). Via the Player of the Year vote, he was also added to the No. 2 position for First Team.
The Braves’ Nischay Rawal (4-0) was named as the No. 4 Singles First Team selection.
Prairie View A&M’s Xavier Lawrence was named the SWAC Men’s Tennis Freshman of the Year.
Alabama State had one player make the All-Conference First Team and a doubles pairing earn First Team recognition.
Ion Efrim (4-0) held down the top spot at the Singles No. 2 position while Efrim and Takura Mlambo (6-0) were the No. 1 Doubles pair as well for the Hornets.
The Alabama A&M team of Mateo Monroy Rueda and Carlos Salas were selected to the No. 3 Doubles First Team position.
The All-Conference selections consists of a 12-player team. Members of the All-SWAC Team were decided based upon their conference records during regular season play of the combined two Round Ups that were hosted by Jackson State University from Feb. 24-25 and Alabama State University from March 17-18.
For consideration, male players were required to finish a minimum of four matches at a position in order to qualify. If athletes did not meet the match minimum, the player with the best record closest to the needed matches earned the award.
Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year votes were tabulated from a cast of ballots received from the school’s sports information directors and head coaches. The SWAC Coach of the Year will be given to the winner of the SWAC Championship.
Men’s Tennis
Player of the Year: Kert Kilumets, Alcorn State
Freshman of the Year: Xavier Lawrence, Prairie View A&M
First Team All-SWAC
Singles
No. 1 Andrey Alawi, Jackson State
No. 2 Ion Efrim, Alabama State / Kert Kilumets, Alcorn State
No. 3 Fritz Jacobs, Jackson State
No. 4 Nischay Rawal, Alcorn State
No. 5 Stylianos Gkontsans, Jackson State
No. 6 Vishu Prasad, Jackson State
Doubles
No. 1 Ion Efrim / Takura Mlambo, Alabama State
No. 2 Andrey Alawi / Federico Mendieta, Jackson State
No. 3 Mateo Monroy Rueda / Carlos Salas, Alabama A&M
Second Team All-SWAC
Singles
No. 1 Nishangan Nadaraja, Alabama A&M
No. 2 Ulrick Boyogueno, Prairie View A&M
No. 3 Sergio Avella, Prairie View A&M
No. 4 Aravind Vangala, Arkansas-Pine Bluff
No. 5 Ivan Matas, Alcorn State
No. 6 Zach Suico, Prairie View A&M
Doubles
No. 1 Ulrick Boyogueno / Xavier Lawrence, Prairie View A&M
No. 2 Sergio Avella / Anirudh Yadav, Prairie View A&M
Jualon Greig / Le’Darrien Ledbetter, Arkansas-Pine Bluff
No. 3 Freddy Quintero / Zachary Suico, Prairie View A&M