Bulldogs given six ITA awards
After propelling the Mississippi State men's tennis team to its secondmost wins in program history and the most since 1979, five members of the program were honored with a total of six Intercollegiate Tennis Association Southern Region awards on Saturday.
Nuno Borges led the way as the region's Senior Player of the Year while also being the region's recipient of the Arthur Ashe, Jr. Leadership and Sportsmanship Award for the second year in a row. Borges is MSU'S first two-time winner of the latter, while being State's second-ever Senior Player of the Year, joining Artem Ilyushin, who won the award in 2012.
Borges has automatically qualified for both the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships - which begin Monday in Orlando - earning top-five national seeds in both draws for the second year in a row. The three-time Southeastern Conference Player of the Year Borges, ranked first nationally, will compete as the No. 1 singles seed, while he and Strahinja Rakic will team up as the No. 3 overall doubles seed.
The Maia, Porto, Portugal, native is entering the NCAA Championships riding a career-long 26-match winning streak in singles and became the first Bulldog to finish a dual-match season unbeaten (25-0) this spring, all at the No. 1 position. Overall, he holds a staggering 32-2 singles ledger in 2018-19. This marks Borges' third straight appearance in the singles championship, with all three coming as an automatic qualifier. He reached the NCAA Singles semifinals each of the last two years.
In doubles, Borges and Rakic have picked up right where they left off from their NCAA Doubles quarterfinal run a year ago, holding a 21-10 overall mark in 2018-19. This spring, the duo was just as impressive, anchoring the No. 1 position with a 16-7 ledger that includes a 9-2 mark in SEC play. Together, Borges and Rakic hold the most wins by a doubles pair in program history with 55.
To cap off an incredible senior year in which he finished second on the team with 25 singles victories, Trevor Foshey earned the region's Most Improved Senior laurels while Giovanni Oradini was named the Player to Watch. Foshey is just the second Bulldog to earn his honor, joining Tassilo Schmid in 2015, after saving arguably his best season for last. In his final campaign, Foshey went 25-12 in singles and 21-10 in doubles, going 15-6 and 15-7 in dual match play, respectively.
Foshey finished his career ranked eighth in program history in career doubles wins (75) and tied for ninth in career dual match doubles wins (48) while also reaching the singles final at the 2018 ITA Southern Region Championships in October.
The 2018 singles All-american Oradini is slated to take the court Monday as an at-large NCAA qualifier in singles, while also teaming up with Niclas Braun in the doubles championship, beginning Tuesday. The Rovereto, Italy, product holds an 1812 mark in singles and is ranked 61st nationally, while he and Braun are a team-best 29-7 overall after going a sparkling 17-2 ledger in dual matches.
Oradini reached the 2018 NCAA Round of 16 in singles while Braun and Foshey paired to do the same in doubles in 2017.
The Bulldogs swept Saturday's regional coaching honors as well, as Matt Roberts captured Wilson ITA Coach of the Year laurels in the Southern Region for the third consecutive season while Andrew Goodwin earned Assistant Coach of the Year honors after helping lead the Bulldogs to their second straight SEC Tournament crown.
Roberts becomes the first threetime ITA region coach of the year honoree in program history, while Goodwin is MSU'S fifth honoree for Assistant Coach of the Year, the first since Tanner Stump in 2016. Roberts also garnered the assistant award before becoming the Bulldogs' skipper, doing so in 2014.
National award winners will be announced Sunday.
Starkville Daily News)