Wake Forest Athletics
Rubin Named ACC Player and Freshman of the Year
4/27/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
By Andrew Wilson, Wake Forest Athletic Communications (@WakeMTennis)
GREENSBORO, N.C. - Noah Rubin of the 11th-ranked Wake Forest men's tennis team made history Monday morning in becoming the first student-athlete in Atlantic Coast Conference men's tennis history to earn both ACC Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year.
In addition to his major accolades, he was also named an All-ACC First Team member with teammate Romain Bogaerts while Jon Ho was named to the All-ACC Third Team.
Rubin is the first player to win ACC Player of the Year in program history and is the third Freshman of the Year honoree to come out of Wake Forest, following in the footsteps of Derrick Spice in 2002 and Todd Paul in 2004. He was named ACC Player of the Week a conference-high four times during the regular season, including each of the final three weeks of the season leading into last week's ACC Championships.
By earning first-team honors, Bogaerts has been named an All-ACC first-team member in each of his two seasons at Wake Forest. Ho's third-team nomination is the first of his career.
In 22 matches during the spring season, Rubin posted a stellar record of 19-3 with 18 of those victories coming at No. 1 singles. In conference play, the freshman from New York, New York, posted a 10-1 mark with his only loss coming to Nicolas Alvarez of Duke, who was the No. 11 player in the country at the time of the match. Even more impressive, Rubin posted a 13-3 mark against nationally-ranked players while posting wins over then-No. 1 Sebastian Stiefelmeyer of Louisville, No. 7 Ryan Shane of Virginia, then-No. 9 Quentin Monaghan of Notre Dame and then-No. 15 Brayden Schnur of North Carolina. Of those four top-15 players, Rubin posted straight-set wins against the three in the ITA Top 10 (Stiefelmeyer, Shane and Monaghan). When it mattered most in the ACC Championships last week, Rubin posted three straight-set wins over the likes of Hunter Harrington of Clemson, No. 61 Christopher Eubanks of Georgia Tech and No. 7 Shane of Virginia.
In doubles, Rubin has nearly as impressive with a 14-5 mark, primarily out of the No. 2 position with Ho. Playing all but one match with Ho, the duo has posted a 13-5 mark this year with a 7-2 record in conference action during dual-match play. Though the duo lost on Sunday against Virginia, Rubin and Ho are 7-3 in their last 10 matches with a 12-4 record together at the No. 2 position.
Playing primarily out of the No. 2 singles position, Bogaerts has posted a 24-7 mark between tournament and dual-match action while being a mainstay in the ITA Top 20 throughout the year. Since the season turned to dual-match play, though, the junior has shined with an overall 20-4 mark, making him the only Wake Forest player to have posted 20 wins thus far during the dual-match season. With a 16-3 mark at No. 2 singles, he posted a 9-4 mark against nationally-ranked opponents. When asked to move up to No. 1 singles, Bogaerts didn't skip a beat in posting a three-set victory over then-No. 2 Shane of Virginia and earned straight-set wins over then-No. 28 Cameron Norrie of TCU and Alejandro Augusto of Clemson. His lone loss at No. 1 singles was against then-No. 4 Soren Hess-Olesen of then-No. 6 Texas. Like Rubin, Bogaerts went 10-1 during the regular season against ACC opponents. On the doubles circuit, Bogaerts teamed primarily with Keivon Tabrizi at No. 3. Overall, Bogaerts went 11-7 in doubles while posting a record of 8-4 with Tabrizi.
With 27 singles victories between tournament and dual-match action, Ho ranks second on the team in victories this year, which is one win shy of Christian Seraphim for the team lead. Having posted a 27-12 mark this year, Ho was consistent throughout tournament and dual-match play in posting a 10-4 record in singles tournament action while going 17-8 during dual-match play. Ho alternated throughout the season with Skander Mansouri in playing at Nos. 3 and 4 singles. At the two positions, Ho went 14-6 in dual-match competition while going 2-2 at No. 2 singles and 1-0 in his lone appearance at No. 1 against Gardner-Webb. In conference play, Ho didn't miss a match in posting an 8-4 record while going 5-5 against nationally-ranked opponents. In doubles, Ho put up an outstanding 18-8 mark throughout the year, playing primarily with Rubin at No. 2. Overall, Ho posted a 7-3 doubles record during the season in ACC play.
All three players are ranked in the ITA poll as Rubin checks in at No. 13, Bogaerts at No. 15 and Ho at No. 92. New rankings will be released on Friday, May 1.
Finishing out the major awards with Rubin, Virginia Tech's Jim Thompson was named ACC Coach of the Year.
After falling to Virginia in the ACC Championship finals on Sunday, Wake Forest now awaits its first-round opponent in the NCAA Championship. The first two rounds of the NCAA Championship are schedule for the weekend of May 8-10 at 16 host schools across the nation with the final 16 teams converging on Waco, Texas, at Baylor University to battle for the national championship. The NCAA Men's Tennis Selection Show will be aired on NCAA.com at 5:30 p.m. following the NCAA Women's Tennis Selection Show at 5 p.m.
NCAA Championship Selection Show Link.
Individual Award Winners
Player of the Year - Noah Rubin, Fr., Wake Forest
Freshman of the Year - Noah Rubin, Wake Forest
Coach of the Year - Jim Thompson, Virginia Tech
All-ACC First Team
Quentin Monaghan @ - Jr., Notre Dame
Sebastian Stiefelmeyer - Sr., Louisville
Noah Rubin - Fr., Wake Forest
Ryan Shane @ - Jr., Virginia
Nicolas Alvarez - Fr. - Duke
Brayden Schnur @ - So., North Carolina
Mitchell Frank ! - Sr., Virginia
Romain Bogaerts @ - Jr. - Wake Forest
Ronnie Schneider @ - So. - North Carolina
All-ACC Second Team
Andreas Bjerrehus # - Jr., Virginia Tech
Jason Tahir @ - Sr., Duke
Christopher Eubanks - Fr., Georgia Tech
Thai-Son Kwiatkowski @ - So., Virginia
Amerigo Contini # - Jr., Virginia Tech
Robbie Mudge # - Sr., NC State
Benjamin Lock - Jr., Florida State
Raphael Hemmeler @ - Sr., Duke
Brett Clark @ - Jr., North Carolina
All-ACC Third Team
Collin Altamirano - Fr., Virginia
Hunter Koontz - Sr., Virginia Tech
Hunter Harrington # - Sr., Clemson
Beck Bond - Sr., NC State
Michael Rinaldi - Jr., Florida State
Joao Monteiro @ - Jr., Virginia Tech
Albert Wagner - Sr., Louisville
Jon Ho - Jr., Wake Forest
Jack Murray ^ - So., North Carolina
Bruno Semenzato ^ @ - Jr., Duke
Key:
^ - Denotes tie
@ - Two-time honoree
# - Three-time honoree
! - Four-time honoree
Players Mentioned
