South Atlantic Conference Announces Men's Tennis Award Winners and All-Conference Teams
ROCK HILL, S.C. (TheSAC.com) – Catawba's Edoardo Cecere was voted the 2024 South Atlantic Conference Men's Tennis Player of the Year, while UVA Wise's Yi-Hsuan Chen was voted the Conference's Freshman of the Year. In addition, Wingate head coach Derrick Taylor was named the Coach of the Year, the SAC office announced today.
Cecere, a graduate student from Turin, Italy, played No. 1 singles in every match this season, going 11-1 in conference play. Cecere has not dropped a set in any of his 11 wins in conference play and owns a 16-1 overall record in doubles play with 15 of those coming in the No. 1 spot. Cecere earned a pair of SAC Player of the Week honors and helped turn Catawba from a ninth-place finish in 2023 to second place with the highest national ranking in program history.
Chen, a freshman from Keelung, Taiwan, finished the regular season with an 11-9 singles record, going 6-4 in the SAC playing 19 of his 20 matches in the No. 1 spot. He also competed at No. 1 doubles, compiling a record of 12-7 overall, going 4-5 in league play. He was 11-5 at No. 1 doubles overall.
Taylor earns the SAC Men's Tennis Coach of the Year honor after guiding the Bulldogs to a perfect 12-0 SAC regular season and has the Bulldogs up to No. 16 in the national poll. This is the 11th SAC regular season title for the Bulldogs in the last 15 years and enter the SAC Tournament on a 9-match winning streak.
Joining Cecere on the All-SAC first team singles squad are a trio from Wingate including Gabriel Constantino, Florian Walcher and Carlo Rosellini along with Carson-Newman's Marnix Van Dalen and Emory & Henry's Kartik Parhar.
The All-SAC first team doubles honorees are Cecere and Ryan Little from Catawba, Luka Brown and Hugo Nossler of Wingate and Constantino and Edis Nokic of Wingate.
2024 SAC Men's Tennis All-Conference
First Team Doubles
Luka Brown / Hugo Nossler – Wingate
Edoardo Cecere / Ryan Little – Catawba
Gabriel Constantino / Edis Nokic - Wingate
Second Team Doubles
Lars Hordijk / Marnix Van Dalen – Carson-Newman
Andre Zamorano / Andres Cortes – Limestone
Harper Mills / Thom Hermans – Lincoln Memorial
Third Team Doubles
Tom Lamers / Thibaut Decaluew – Coker
Vadym Rogynsky / Rufus Plane – Lenoir-Rhyne
David Negzaoui / Joshua Fritz - Newberry
First Team Singles
Edoardo Cecere – Catawba
Marnix Van Dalen - Carson-Newman
Gabriel Constantino – Wingate
Kartik Parhar – Emory & Henry
Florian Walcher – Wingate
Carlo Rosellini – Wingate
Second Team Singles
Vincent Mico Fellonar – Anderson
Marc Janse – Carson-Newman
Nemanja Subanovic – Tusculum
Vadym Rogynski – Lenoir-Rhyne
Alexandru Giurea – Lincoln Memorial
Louca Bertone – Limestone
Third Team Singles
Yi-Hsuan Chen – UVA Wise
Mateo Berne – Catawba
Hugo Nossler – Wingate
Will Gee – Tusculum
Edis Nokic – Wingate
Radu Florea – Lincoln Memorial
Player of the Year
Edoardo Cecere - Catawba
Freshman of the Year
Yi-Hsuan Chen – UVA Wise
Coach of the Year
Derrick Taylor – Wingate