FRISCO, Texas – A strong doubles season on the New Orleans Privateers men's tennis side led to two teams being named First Team All-Southland.
Johannes Klein and
Samuel Armand won the honor at flight two.
Nicolas Kramer and
Odysseas Papaioannou shared the award at flight three.
Klein and Armand went through Southland play unblemished in doubles. The duo went 4-0 against Southland foes and had a 12-6 overall mark. The only conference match that went unfinished saw Klein and Armand ahead 5-4 (vs. Lamar). They ended the season by winning five of their last seven doubles bouts.
"I think in Johannes and Sam we had the most success we had as a doubles team in the past few years," said Coach
Burzis Kanga. "These two had incredible chemistry and they complemented each other so well. Their enthusiasm showed when they played together."
Kramer and Papaioannou came on at the end of the season to help the Privateers to some critical doubles points. The tandem finished their season by winning eight of the last nine matches. They finished 3-1 against Southland opponents.
"As far as Nicolas and Odie, they put together some good wins. It's been a bright career for Nicolas and it's nice that Odie got this recognition as well. It's something for him to be proud of and it's a well deserved honor for both teams."
On top of their strong Southland performance, Kramer and Papaioannou won non-conference doubles matches against SMU and New Mexico State. They shared the top honor at flight three with Nikolas Moceanu and Josh Sheehy of Abilene Christian.
New Orleans has had five doubles teams earn all-conference honors since joining the Southland (2013). Prior to this year, the last doubles team to earn All-Southland honors was in 2015 (Blake Gregor and Rui Silva).
The all-conference teams are listed below.
Player of the Year: Josh Sheehy, Abilene Christian
Freshman of the Year: Dimitris Azoides, Abilene Christian
Newcomer of the Year: Akinori Wada, Abilene Christian
Coach of the Year: Hutton Jones, Abilene Christian
First-Team Singles
No. 1 Josh Sheehy, Abilene Christian
No. 2 Francois Kellerman, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
No. 3 Carlos Paton Canal, Lamar
No. 4 Oliver Valentinsson, Incarnate Word
No. 5 Riley Tran, Abilene Christian
No. 6 Kyoehei Yamanaka, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
Second-Team Singles
No. 1 William Mottet, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
No. 2 Nicolas Mayr, Lamar
No. 3 Nikolas Moceanu, Abilene Christian
No. 4 Carlos Pedrosa, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
No. 5 Josh Taylor, Lamar
No. 6 Akinori Wada, Abilene Christian
First-Team Doubles
No. 1 Jackson Fine/Cole Lawson, Abilene Christian
No. 2
Johannes Klein/
Samuel Armand, New Orleans
No. 3 Nikolas Moceanu/Jonathan Sheehy, Abilene Christian & Odysseas Papioannou/
Nicolas Kramer, New Orleans
Second-Team Doubles
No. 1 Francois Kellerman/Okkie Kellerman, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
No. 2 Paco Bendana/Caleb Dyer, Incarnate Word
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