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SoCon men's tennis postseason awards announced
ETSU’s Dimitri Badra named SoCon Player of the Year for fourth straight season
SPARTANBURG, S.C. – ETSU’s Dimitri Badra has been named the Southern Conference Men’s Tennis Player of the Year for the fourth straight season, as the league announced its 2024 awards Wednesday. Chattanooga’s Jakub Jupa has been named the SoCon Freshman of the Year, while ETSU coach Ricky Rojas earned his second career SoCon Coach of the Year honor. Mercer’s Victor Putter was named the winner of the Don Bunch/Buddy Hartsell Sportsmanship Award.
Postseason balloting was conducted by the league’s eight head coaches, who were not allowed to vote for their own student-athletes.
Badra, already one of just eight players in league history to be named the SoCon Player of the Year multiple times, now becomes the first to earn the honor four times. Following last season, he joined ETSU’s Yaser Zaatini and College of Charleston’s Or Dekel as the only three-time winners of the award and is the Bucs’ 12th Player of the Year selection overall. The redshirt senior from Maracay, Venezuela, enters postseason play with a 13-4 singles mark at No. 1, including a perfect 7-0 SoCon record, with his overall winning percentage of .765 leading the league at the top flight. In doubles play, he owns a 4-3 mark at the No. 2 spot in league action, while playing with teammate Adam Nagoudi. Badra earned SoCon Player of the Week honors on three occasions this season (Feb. 27, March 12 and April 16), extending his SoCon record to 15 career selections. Badra earned first-team All-SoCon honors in singles.
Jupa is Chattanooga’s sixth SoCon Freshman of the Year selection and the first since former standout Kerim Hyatt captured the honor following the 2019 campaign. The rookie from the Czech Republic is 14-5 overall in singles play this season, including a 7-1 mark at No. 1 and a 6-1 SoCon record, with his only setback coming to Badra, the player of the year. In doubles play, Jupa is 10-4 overall - all at the No. 1 flight - including a 5-2 league mark. In addition to earning a spot on the All-Freshman team, Jupa was a first-team All-SoCon selection in both singles and paired with Peyton Gatti to claim first-team doubles recognition.
Rojas, who served as head coach for ETSU’s women’s tennis program from 2016-23, and now oversees both the men’s and women’s programs, earned his second SoCon Men’s Coach of the Year accolade since 2017 after leading the Bucs to a 10-9 overall record and a 7-0 SoCon mark. He claimed his third straight SoCon Women’s Coach of the Year honor last season.
In addition to Badra, ETSU saw Alberto Garcia earn All-Freshman Team honors for the Bucs and Milledge Cossu and Francisco Lamas claimed second-team doubles accolades.
Putter is Mercer’s first winner of the Don Bunch/Buddy Hartsell Sportsmanship award. The graduate student from Centurion Gauteng, South Africa, posted a 4-2 mark at No. 6 singles in league matches for the Bears this season.
Furman’s Elijah Poritzky, Samford’s Sandeep Mohandoss and Maxwell Giddens, along with UNCG’s Tymofiy Khrystyuk rounded out the singles All-SoCon first team, while Giddens and Mohandoss, along with The Citadel’s Hayden Shoemake and Sebastian Kamieniecki earned the other two first-team doubles spots.
The Mercer duo of Nemanja Stefanovic and Marceau Fouilhoux were named as second-team All-SoCon singles selections, along with Shoemake. After earning all-freshman team recognition a year ago, Furman’s Thomas Kennedy claimed second-team singles honors and paired with Poritzky to represent the Paladins as second-team doubles selections. Wofford’s Robbie Young and Chattanooga’s Gabriel Castillo rounded out the second-team all-conference singles selections.
The Mocs’ Cortland Grove and Jordan McClure also captured second team all-SoCon doubles accolades, with Furman’s Walker Allen, Samford’s Sebastian Harrison, the Spartans’ Tejas Wall and Chattanooga’s Ethan Carr rounding out the all-freshman squad.
The SoCon Men’s Tennis Championship begins Thursday at 1 p.m. at the Champions Club in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with all eight league teams vying for the title.
2024 Southern Conference Player of the Year
Dimitri Badra, R-Sr., ETSU
2024 Southern Conference Freshman of the Year
Jakub Jupa, Chattanooga
2024 Southern Conference Coach of the Year
Ricky Rojas, ETSU
2024 Southern Conference Don Bunch/Buddy Hartsell Sportsmanship Award
Victor Putter, Gr., Mercer
2024 All-Southern Conference Men’s Tennis
First team
Singles
Dimitri Badra, ETSU
Jakub Jupa, Chattanooga
Elijah Poritzky, Furman
Sandeep Mohandoss, Samford
Maxwell Giddens, Samford
Tymofiy Khrystyuk, UNCG
Doubles
Jakub Jupa/Peyton Gatti, Chattanooga
Maxwell Giddens/Sandeep Mohandoss, Samford
Hayden Shoemake/Sebastian Kamieniecki, The Citadel
Second team
Singles
Hayden Shoemake, The Citadel
Thomas Kennedy, Furman
Nemanja Stefanovic, Mercer
Robbie Young, Wofford
Gabriel Castillo Sanchez, Chattanooga
Marceau Fouilhoux, Mercer
Doubles
Milledge Cossu/Francisco Lamas, ETSU
Elijah Poritzky/ Thomas Kennedy, Furman
Cortland Grove/Jordan McClure, Chattanooga
All-Freshman Team
Jakub Jupa, Chattanooga
Walker Allen, Furman
Alberto Garcia, ETSU
Sebastian Harrison, Samford
Tejas Wall, UNCG
Ethan Carr, Chattanooga
Postseason balloting was conducted by the league’s eight head coaches, who were not allowed to vote for their own student-athletes.
Badra, already one of just eight players in league history to be named the SoCon Player of the Year multiple times, now becomes the first to earn the honor four times. Following last season, he joined ETSU’s Yaser Zaatini and College of Charleston’s Or Dekel as the only three-time winners of the award and is the Bucs’ 12th Player of the Year selection overall. The redshirt senior from Maracay, Venezuela, enters postseason play with a 13-4 singles mark at No. 1, including a perfect 7-0 SoCon record, with his overall winning percentage of .765 leading the league at the top flight. In doubles play, he owns a 4-3 mark at the No. 2 spot in league action, while playing with teammate Adam Nagoudi. Badra earned SoCon Player of the Week honors on three occasions this season (Feb. 27, March 12 and April 16), extending his SoCon record to 15 career selections. Badra earned first-team All-SoCon honors in singles.
Jupa is Chattanooga’s sixth SoCon Freshman of the Year selection and the first since former standout Kerim Hyatt captured the honor following the 2019 campaign. The rookie from the Czech Republic is 14-5 overall in singles play this season, including a 7-1 mark at No. 1 and a 6-1 SoCon record, with his only setback coming to Badra, the player of the year. In doubles play, Jupa is 10-4 overall - all at the No. 1 flight - including a 5-2 league mark. In addition to earning a spot on the All-Freshman team, Jupa was a first-team All-SoCon selection in both singles and paired with Peyton Gatti to claim first-team doubles recognition.
Rojas, who served as head coach for ETSU’s women’s tennis program from 2016-23, and now oversees both the men’s and women’s programs, earned his second SoCon Men’s Coach of the Year accolade since 2017 after leading the Bucs to a 10-9 overall record and a 7-0 SoCon mark. He claimed his third straight SoCon Women’s Coach of the Year honor last season.
In addition to Badra, ETSU saw Alberto Garcia earn All-Freshman Team honors for the Bucs and Milledge Cossu and Francisco Lamas claimed second-team doubles accolades.
Putter is Mercer’s first winner of the Don Bunch/Buddy Hartsell Sportsmanship award. The graduate student from Centurion Gauteng, South Africa, posted a 4-2 mark at No. 6 singles in league matches for the Bears this season.
Furman’s Elijah Poritzky, Samford’s Sandeep Mohandoss and Maxwell Giddens, along with UNCG’s Tymofiy Khrystyuk rounded out the singles All-SoCon first team, while Giddens and Mohandoss, along with The Citadel’s Hayden Shoemake and Sebastian Kamieniecki earned the other two first-team doubles spots.
The Mercer duo of Nemanja Stefanovic and Marceau Fouilhoux were named as second-team All-SoCon singles selections, along with Shoemake. After earning all-freshman team recognition a year ago, Furman’s Thomas Kennedy claimed second-team singles honors and paired with Poritzky to represent the Paladins as second-team doubles selections. Wofford’s Robbie Young and Chattanooga’s Gabriel Castillo rounded out the second-team all-conference singles selections.
The Mocs’ Cortland Grove and Jordan McClure also captured second team all-SoCon doubles accolades, with Furman’s Walker Allen, Samford’s Sebastian Harrison, the Spartans’ Tejas Wall and Chattanooga’s Ethan Carr rounding out the all-freshman squad.
The SoCon Men’s Tennis Championship begins Thursday at 1 p.m. at the Champions Club in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with all eight league teams vying for the title.
2024 Southern Conference Player of the Year
Dimitri Badra, R-Sr., ETSU
2024 Southern Conference Freshman of the Year
Jakub Jupa, Chattanooga
2024 Southern Conference Coach of the Year
Ricky Rojas, ETSU
2024 Southern Conference Don Bunch/Buddy Hartsell Sportsmanship Award
Victor Putter, Gr., Mercer
2024 All-Southern Conference Men’s Tennis
First team
Singles
Dimitri Badra, ETSU
Jakub Jupa, Chattanooga
Elijah Poritzky, Furman
Sandeep Mohandoss, Samford
Maxwell Giddens, Samford
Tymofiy Khrystyuk, UNCG
Doubles
Jakub Jupa/Peyton Gatti, Chattanooga
Maxwell Giddens/Sandeep Mohandoss, Samford
Hayden Shoemake/Sebastian Kamieniecki, The Citadel
Second team
Singles
Hayden Shoemake, The Citadel
Thomas Kennedy, Furman
Nemanja Stefanovic, Mercer
Robbie Young, Wofford
Gabriel Castillo Sanchez, Chattanooga
Marceau Fouilhoux, Mercer
Doubles
Milledge Cossu/Francisco Lamas, ETSU
Elijah Poritzky/ Thomas Kennedy, Furman
Cortland Grove/Jordan McClure, Chattanooga
All-Freshman Team
Jakub Jupa, Chattanooga
Walker Allen, Furman
Alberto Garcia, ETSU
Sebastian Harrison, Samford
Tejas Wall, UNCG
Ethan Carr, Chattanooga