2018 SEC Men's Tennis Awards announced

Birmingham, Ala. - The 2018 men's tennis first and second team All-SEC, All-Freshman team, and the yearly awards have been announced by the conference office.

Mississippi State's Matt Roberts was named SEC Coach of the Year for the first time. Mississippi State is currently 20-2 overall and ended the conference season 11-1. The Bulldogs won the SEC Tournament on Sunday with a 4-3 victory over Texas A&M.

Mississippi State's Nuno Borges was named Player of the Year for the second consecutive year. He's only the third men's tennis player presented back-to-back honors since it was first bestowed in 1993. He joins Georgia's John Isner and Tennessee's John-Patrick Smith in the elite club.

Borges was also named Scholar-Athlete of the year for men's tennis. Since arriving at MSU in the spring of 2016, he has achieved a 3.50 GPA or higher each semester-twice being named a Dean's Scholar (3.50-3.79 GPA) and twice being named a President's Scholar (3.80-4.00). He was also named an ITA Scholar-Athlete in 2016 and 2017, and Academic All-SEC in 2017.

Borges is consistently ranked in the top five of the Oracle ITA singles rankings as the highest-ranked player in SEC play the entire season, as 19 of his 23 wins came against ranked foes, and his only three losses in SEC play came against current top-25 opponents. He played at the No. 1 position in both singles and doubles for the entire SEC season, holding a 6-3 record in doubles and a stellar 9-3 mark in singles. He also mounted an incredible 16-match win streak from November 1 to March 16.

Florida's Oliver Crawford is the 2018 Freshman of the Year. He tied for the lead in the SEC with 11 wins and was 11-1 in conference matches. He went 17-5 on the year and had an SEC best 12-match winning streak. He ended the regular season with a perfect 10-0 at No. 3 singles with a record of 2-3 at No. 2 and 4-2 at No. 4 singles. In doubles, he had a record of 17-4 with a perfect 8-0 in the SEC and 2-0 against nationally ranked opponents.

A complete list of the awards follows and ties were not broken leading to 16-member All-SEC First-Team and a 16-member All-SEC Second-Team.

First Team All-SEC
Mazen Osama, Alabama
Jose Salazar, Arkansas
Oliver Crawford, Florida
Alfredo Perez, Florida
Will Bushamuka, Kentucky
Ryotaro Matsumura, Kentucky
Tim Sandkaulen, Ole Miss
Nuno Borges, Mississippi State
Giovanni Oradini, Mississippi State
Strahinja Rakic, Mississippi State
Gabriel Friedrich, South Carolina
Timo Stodder, Tennessee
Patrick Kypson, Texas A&M
Arthur Rinderknech, Texas A&M
Cameron Klinger, Vanderbilt
Daniel Valent, Vanderbilt

Second Team All-SEC
Edson Ortiz, Alabama
Matteo DeVincentis, Auburn
Johannes Ingildsen. Florida
Wayne Montgomery, Georgia
Nathan Ponwith, Georgia
Jan Zielinski, Georgia
Trey Yates, Kentucky
Shane Monroe, LSU
Gustav Hansson, Ole Miss
Niclas Braun, Mississippi State
Paul Jubb, South Carolina
Scott Jones, Tennessee
Juan Carlos Aguilar, Texas A&M
Jordi Arconada, Texas A&M
Valentin Vacherot, Texas A&M
Baker Newman, Vanderbilt

All-Freshman
Matteo DeVincentis, Auburn
Oliver Crawford, Florida
Florian Broska, Mississippi State
Juan Carlos Aguilar, Texas A&M
Patrick Kypson, Texas A&M
George Harwell, Vanderbilt

Player of the Year
Nuno Borges, Mississippi State

Freshman of the Year
Oliver Crawford, Florida

Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Nuno Borges, Mississippi State

Coach of the Year
Matt Roberts, Mississippi State