Saints' Stainer earns third-straight UMAC Men's Tennis Player of the Year honor
ST. PAUL, Minn.---The College of St. Scholastica men's tennis team won the 2016 Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) regular season title thanks to an impressive year from senior Josh Stainer who was rewarded for his efforts with his fourth career all-conference honor and third-straight UMAC Player of the Year award announced Tuesday.
Stainer wasn't the only member of the Saints program to walk away with a top honor as Head Coach Wells Patten was selected by his peers as the UMAC Men's Tennis Coach of the Year. Under Patten's guidance, the Saints finished 16-6 overall and 10-0 UMAC play to win their 20th-consecutive regular season title. The Saints also captured their fifth-straight UMAC postseason crown Saturday to finish the year on a 13-match winning streak.
For four years, Stainer led a Saints program that went 40-0 in UMAC matches and 76-25 overall during his career. Saturday, he became the all-time program leader in career victories recording 116 between singles and doubles – all of his wins came at both No. 1 positions.
As a senior, Stainer was nothing but impressive. He went a perfect 7-0 in regular season UMAC matches and 14-5 overall in singles. In doubles, he was even better finishing with a 9-0 UMAC mark and 16-6 overall record. All of Stainer's UMAC singles wins came in straight sets and he dropped a total of just 20 games over the seven-match span – meaning he won nearly 81 percent of all games he played individually in the UMAC regular season.
Stainer was joined by teammate Mike Fontana as a four-year All-UMAC honoree ending his impressive career with a perfect 10-0 singles record in UMAC play this season. Fontana became the winningest singles player in Saints' history with 66 career singles victories.
Jacob Kubler of Bethany Lutheran College was selected for the third-straight season for the All-UMAC team. The junior went 6-4 in UMAC singles play and helped the Vikings earn the No. 3 seed in the UMAC postseason tournament.
The Saints' Engelstad was a repeat honoree as a junior after going 7-0 in UMAC singles and 9-0 in UMAC doubles play. He was joined by repeat winners from the University of Northwestern-St. Paul in sophomores Brett Jacobus, Josh Kimball and CJ Lloyd. The Eagles' three sophomores led a young Northwestern squad to a second-place finish in both the regular season and the conference tournament.
St. Scholastica led the all-conference team with six selections as Bryce Gadke, Makar Grytsevych and Jordan Lindhom also made the list. Northwestern finished with five as first-year contributors Landon Ridpath and Derek Williams also earned nods.
Each year the UMAC recognizes the team sportsmanship award, an accolade that is selected by the UMAC coaches and awarded to the team that best represented sportsmanship throughout the entire season. The Unviersity of Minnesota Morris earned the honor for the fourth-consecutive season. Each team also had one representative on the individual sportsmanship award list.
Player of the Year Award* – Josh Stainer, Sr., St. Scholastica
Coach of the Year Award – Wells Patten, St. Scholastica
First-Team UMAC All-Conference
| Name |
Year |
School |
Hometown/High School |
| Logan Engelstad |
Jr. |
St. Scholastica |
Thief River Falls, Minn./Lincoln |
| Mike Fontana |
Sr. |
St. Scholastica |
Hibbing, Minn./Hibbing |
| Bryce Gadke |
Fy |
St. Scholastica |
Marshfield, Wis./Marshfield |
| Makar Grytsevych |
So. |
St. Scholastica |
Lviv, Ukraine/Lviv Linguistic Gymnasium |
| Brett Jacobus |
So. |
Northwestern |
Lakeville, Minn./Lakeville North |
| Josh Kimball |
So. |
Northwestern |
Waseca, Minn./Waseca |
| Jacob Kubler |
Jr. |
Bethany Lutheran |
Shakopee, Minn./Shakopee |
| Jordan Lindholm |
Sr. |
St. Scholastica |
Mt. Iron, Minn./Virginia |
| CJ Lloyd |
So. |
Northwestern |
Shoreview, Minn./Mounds View |
| Landon Ridpath |
Fy. |
Northwestern |
St. Cloud, Minn./St. Cloud Tech |
| Josh Stainer* |
Sr. |
St. Scholastica |
Rowlands Castle, England/South Down College |
| Derek Williams |
Fy. |
Northwestern |
Zimmerman, Minn./Elk River |
UMAC Sportsmanship Awards
Team Award – Minnesota Morris
Bethany Lutheran – Jordan Poff, Fy., Blaine, Minn./Blaine
Martin Luther – Justin Steinke, So., San Antonio, Texas/Luther Prep
Minnesota Morris – Michael Maudal, Sr., New Ulm, Minn./New Ulm
North Central – Ian Bird, Sr., Lakeville, Minn./Lakeville South
Northwestern – Josh Kimball, So., Waseca, Minn./Waseca
St. Scholastica – Matt Tellander, Sr., Coon Rapids, Minn./Coon Rapids