The Southern Conference regular-season champion Elon men’s tennis team nearly made it a clean sweep of the conference postseason awards, winning three of the four major awards that were presented. Cameron Silverman was named the league’s freshman of the year, while senior Alberto Rojas became the second straight Elon player to be honored with the Don Bunch/Buddy Hartsell Sportsmanship Award. Head coach Michael Leonard was recognized as the SoCon Coach of the Year for the third time in his career.
Six Elon players were also recognized on all-conference teams with senior Philip Nemec earning first-team honors in both singles and doubles. The Calgary, Alberta native made his second straight appearance on the first team in singles after producing a 5-5 conference record at the top position. Teammate and fellow first-team honoree Chase Helpingstine and Nemec were perfect against league foes in doubles at 10-0. The duo is currently on a 17-match winning streak and owns an 18-1 overall mark. Nemec has earned first-team doubles honors in three of his four seasons with the Phoenix. Helpingstine made his initial appearance on the first team after being named to the second team in 2010.
In addition to being honored with the Sportsmanship Award, Rojas received second-team singles honors for the second straight season. Rojas did not lose a conference match, garnering a record of 10-0, playing primarily at the number five spot. He is on an 11-match winning streak with an overall mark of 15-6 in his final season in the maroon and gold.
Elon also had a doubles pair earn second-team recognition as Silverman and teammate Eric Turner posted a 9-0 SoCon mark at number three. The duo is 10-1 on the season and has come away victorious in nine consecutive matches.
Silverman, a member of the league’s all-freshman team, became the third Phoenix to be noted as the SoCon’s rookie of the year and the first since Oscar Podlewski in 2008. Competing at the number two singles spot, Silverman won eight of his 10 league matches while also going undefeated in doubles.
Leonard led the squad to a share of the regular-season crown, Elon’s third SoCon title in its eight years in the league. The Phoenix’s last regular-season championship came in 2007 when the squad also took the SoCon Tournament title and advanced to the NCAA Tournament. In his seven seasons as the head coach of Elon tennis, Leonard owns a career mark of 111-60 and is 48-21 in the SoCon.
The top-seeded Phoenix will be aiming for a fifth consecutive appearance in the league championship match, having finished as the runner-up in each of the last three seasons. Elon has a first-round bye and then will face off against the winner of No. 8 Georgia Southern vs. No. 9 Chattanooga on Thursday, April 21 at 1 p.m. in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Meantime, Phoenix athlete Jordan Johnston was named the Southern Conference Women’s Tennis Freshman of the Year. The Phoenix’s top player earns the honor after compiling a 13-6 singles record during her freshman season.