Nazal Honored With All-West Coast Conference First Team
5/1/2013 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
SAN BRUNO, Calif. - Gonzaga University sophomore Alvaro Nazal has been named to the All-West Coast Conference first-team singles announced the league with its annual accolades Wednesday.
Nazal is the first Bulldog to be named All-WCC first team since Eduarado Kohlberg was recognized in 2001. Nazal and Kohlberg are the only two in program history to make first-team honors.
The Santiago, Chile, native had a record breaking year for the Bulldogs. Nazal shattered the program record for wins in year with 27. The previous record was held by Scott Sullivan and Marco Antonio Pineda who each had 23 in their respective senior seasons.
The sophomore played every match in the No. 1 singles position and went 14-6 in the spring. Nazal went 6-2 in West Coast Conference matches and had key victories over Santa Clara University's John Lamble and University of San Diego's Thibaut Visy.
In the fall, Nazal advanced a program-best round of 16 at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regionals and captured two tournament titles.
Pepperdine University took two of the three individual awards by capturing the player of the year (Sebastian Fanselow) and coach of the year (Adam Steinberg). Uros Petronijevic took freshman of the year honors.
The 2013 All-Conference teams were selected based on overall season performance, including play at the recent WCC Championship. A full list of All-WCC First and Second Team members in singles and doubles, including honorable mention can be found below.
2013 WCC Men's Tennis Postseason Award Winners
Player of the Year: Sebastian Fanselow, Pepperdine
Freshman of the Year: Uros Petronijevic, San Diego
Coach of the Year: Adam Steinberg, Pepperdine
All-WCC First Team Singles
Sebastian Fanselow, Pepperdine
Patrick Kawka, BYU
John Lamble, Santa Clara
Alvaro Nazal, Gonzaga
Clarke Spinosa, San Diego
Finn Tearney, Pepperdine
All-WCC Second Team Singles
Ratan Gill, Portland
Jesse Kiuru, Saint Mary's
Bernardo Saraiva, San Francisco
Alex Sarkissian, Pepperdine
Thai Tu, San Francisco
Thibaut Visy, San Diego
Singles Honorable Mention: Francis Alcantara, PEP; Keaton Cullimore, BYU; Michel Hu Kwo, POR; Romain Kalaydjian, USD; Romain Kalaydjian, USD; Matt Kecki, SCU; Joakim Norstrom, SMC; Uros Petronijevic, USD; Tom Pham, SCU; Francis Sargeant, BYU; Nils Skajaa, USF.
All-WCC First-Team Doubles
Francis Alcantara/Sebastian Fanselow, Pepperdine
Patrick Kawka/Francis Sargeant, BYU
Nils Skajaa/Bernardo Saraiva, San Francisco
All-WCC Second-Team Doubles
Othar Kordsachia/Felix van Kann, Loyola Marymount
Alex Sarkissian/Finn Tearney, Pepperdine
Clarke Spinosa/Thibaut Visy, San Diego
Doubles Honorable Mention: Ratan Gill/Alex Ferrero, POR; Matt Kecki/Tom Pham, SCU; Jesse Kiuru/Joakim Norstrom, SMC; John Lamble/Ilya Ostintsev, SCU.
