Champion Saints lead 2017 UMAC men's tennis award winners
ST. PAUL, Minn.---The College of St. Scholastica men's tennis team won its 21st-straight Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) regular season title in 2017, which didn't come as a surprise. However, the Saints have had one of the best seasons in program history finishing 20-1 with wins against some strong regional opponents thanks to a plethora of new incoming talent and experienced veterans.
After an outstanding season leading the Saints, Head Coach Wells Patten repeated as Coach of the Year, while rookie Serhii Tykhonenko was voted by the coaches as the UMAC Player of the Year and one of five All-UMAC selections for St. Scholastica, the UMAC announced Tuesday.
Under Patten's guidance, the Saints went a perfect 8-0 against UMAC opponents with threee shutout victories. They also tallied wins over four Minnesota intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) teams and their lone loss was against Luther College – a team ranked No. 18 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Central Region poll and one spot ahead of the Saints in 19th.
The Saints had three first-year players who contributed significantly holding down the top three spots in the singles lineup all season. Leading the way was Tykhonenko who went an impressive 13-6 overall and 6-0 in UMAC play at No. 1 singles. The rookie star lost just nine games to UMAC opponents in singles this season won all of his matches in straight sets.
Not only was Tykhonenko a contributor in singles, he also finsihed 17-2 in doubles and was 7-0 in conference matches at the No. 1 spot. His outstanding rookie campaign was highlighted by two appearances in the Central Region individual rankings with one week as high as No. 24 individually.
Though Tykhonenko took the top individual honor, Jacob Kubler of Bethany Lutheran College was one of the top All-UMAC honor as he collected his fourth-straight accolade to finish out his career for the Vikings. The junior went 5-3 in UMAC singles play and helped the Vikings earn the No. 3 seed in the UMAC postseason tournament.
The Saints' Engelstad was a three-time honoree and finished his career as the program all-time wins leader. The senior went a perfect 21-0 in singles matches this season. Runner-up University of Northwestern has two juniors who made their third appearance on the All-UMAC list in as many seasons in No. 1 singles player CJ Lloyd and Josh Kimball.
Bryce Gadke of St. Scholastica and Landon Ridpath of Northwestern were both repeat honorees as sophomores, while Andrew Jelken of Bethany Lutheran picked up his second career All-UMAC nod. The champion Saints also saw first-year players Ernesto Telles and Brendan Boudreau awarded, while the two final spots went to Dexter Jackson of Bethany Lutheran and Joshua Koelpin of Martin Luther College.
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 fifth-consecutive season. Each team also had one representative on the individual sportsmanship award list.
Player of the Year Award* – Serhii Tykhonenko, Fy., St. Scholastica
Coach of the Year Award – Wells Patten, St. Scholastica
First-Team UMAC All-Conference
| Name |
Year |
School |
Hometown/High School |
| Brendan Boudreau |
Fy. |
St. Scholastica |
Thunder Bay, Ontario/Sir Winston Churchill |
| Logan Engelstad |
Sr. |
St. Scholastica |
Thief River Falls, Minn./Lincoln |
| Bryce Gadke |
So. |
St. Scholastica |
Marshfield, Wis./Marshfield |
| Andrew Jelken |
Jr. |
Bethany Lutheran |
Luverne, Minn./Luverne |
| Dexter Jackson |
Jr. |
Bethany Lutheran |
Chicago, Ill./De La Salle |
| Josh Kimball |
Jr. |
Northwestern |
Waseca, Minn./Waseca |
| Joshua Koelpin |
So. |
Martin Luther |
New Ulm, Minn./Minnesota Valley Lutheran |
| Jacob Kubler |
Sr. |
Bethany Lutheran |
Shakopee, Minn./Shakopee |
| CJ Lloyd |
Jr. |
Northwestern |
Shoreview, Minn./Mounds View |
| Landon Ridpath |
So. |
Northwestern |
St. Cloud, Minn./St. Cloud Tech |
| Ernesto Telles |
Fy. |
St. Scholastica |
El Salvador/Academia Britanica Cuscatleca |
| Serhii Tykhonenko |
Fy. |
St. Scholastica |
Kiev, Ukraine/Lyceum #100 "Podil" |
UMAC Sportsmanship Awards
Team Award – Minnesota Morris
Bethany Lutheran – Andrew Jelken, Sr., Luverne, Minn./Luverne
Martin Luther – Caleb Koelpin, Fy., Dallas, Texas/Luther Prep
Minnesota Morris – Calvin Cicha, Sr., Isanti, Minn./Cambridge-Isanti
Northwestern – Josh Kimball, Jr., Waseca, Minn./Waseca
St. Scholastica – Trace Combs, Jr., White Bear Lake, Minn./White Bear Lake