University of Minnesota Athletics
Players Mentioned
Gophers Take Home ITA Regional Honors
5/21/2018 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
2018 ITA Regional Division I Year-End Awards (May 21, 2018)
Three individuals from the Gopher Men's Tennis team received postseason honors from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) on Monday. Matic Spec was bestowed the title of Central Region Senior Player of the Year, Felix Corwin the Region's Most Improved Senior, and Urban Ljubic the tasc Performance ITA Assistant Coach of the Year for the Central Region.
“I'm really excited and happy for our award winners,” said head coach Geoff Young. "It's extremely well-deserved, and I'm glad they can get some recognition for their success for this year."
The season is not quite done for Corwin, who will compete Wednesday at the NCAA's Singles Tournament. Corwin is 26-8 on the year, including a 16-5 mark at the #1 singles position during the spring. He has six victories over nationally ranked competition already this season. As a junior, he posted a 23-14 overall mark while going 15-6 at #2 singles while going just 1-5 at #1 and earning just two wins against nationally ranked foes. Corwin earned a spot on the Big Ten's First Team for the first time in his career.
Spec wrapped up his fourth year with the Gophers at 24-9, including running off a perfect 10-0 record against the Big Ten while finishing 15-3 at #2 singles and 19-4 during the spring campaign. He also ran off a 17-12 mark in doubles play, 13-7 when paired alongside fellow senior Corwin. Spec earned his fourth-career All-Big Ten selection this season while also earning a Google Cloud Academic All-District At-Large selection last week, and earning Academic All-Big Ten honors in each of his three eligible seasons.
Ljubic earned the Central Region's Assistant Coach postseason nod for the third time in his career, most recently after the 2014-15 campaign.
"Urban has a unique ability to motivate our players as well as hold them to a high standard and the players love him for it," said Young. "He is such a huge part of our success."
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