PAC Release

TRAFFORD, Pa. -- After winning a second straight Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) championship, the Allegheny College men's tennis team was well-represented on the conference's year-end awards list.

Seven Gators earned All-PAC accolades, while junior Anton Hedlund (Hovas, Sweden/Katrinelundsgymnasiet) repeated as the PAC Player of the Year, and Dave Hayden was crowned the PAC Coach of the Year for the second time in as many years.

Hedlund and David Rodriguez (St. Ann's, Trinidad & Tobago/Fatima College) were named to the All-PAC First Team for singles and doubles. Joining them on the first team was the doubles tandem of Will Jarvie (Wilton, Conn./Wilton) and Benedek Kaibas (Salgótarján, Hungary/Mikszáth Kálmán Gimnázium). On the All-PAC Second Team, Jarvie, Kaibas, and Evan Nelson (Scituate, Mass./Scituate) were recognized for their singles performances. Mitchell Curtis (Aurora, Ohio/Aurora) and the duo of Nelson and Reid Stasolla (Pittsburgh, Pa./Fox Chapel) were All-PAC Honorable Mentions.

Hayden's Gators not only won their second consecutive PAC title, but the Allegheny men finished without a loss against a conference opponent. Since rejoining the PAC ahead of the 2022-23 season, the Gators are 16-0 against PAC teams in the regular season and 4-0 in the championship tournament. Allegheny qualified for the NCAA Division III Championship for the second time in program history by winning the PAC championship.

A two-time PAC Player of the Year, Hedlund leads the teams with 43 combined wins compared to only 12 losses. The junior from Sweden enters the NCAA Tournament with a 15-match singles win streak, and a 16-match doubles win streak. Hedlund's only losses of any kind during the spring semester came against No. 1 nationally-ranked Case Western Reserve University in February. Against PAC opponents, he was a combined 16-0 in the regular season, and he went 3-0 in the PAC Championship Tournament.

Rodriguez was the No. 2 player in Allegheny's singles lineup and almost exclusively played No. 1 doubles with Hedlund. He's second on the team in doubles wins with 20 and owns a 16-6 singles record. The sophomore standout also went undefeated against PAC opponents with a 15-0 record in the regular season and three more postseason victories.

As Allegheny's primary No. 2 doubles team, Jarvie and Kaibas went 11-8 with a 5-0 record against PAC foes. Against Grove City College and Franciscan University, the two teams the Gators went on to beat in the PAC Championship Tournament, Jarvie and Kaibas toughed out a pair of tiebreak wins before sweeping the same teams in the playoffs. Both Jarvie and Kaibas were also included on the All-PAC Second Team for singles, and both were unbeaten against conference opponents as the third and fourth players in the lineup. In addition to his All-PAC awards, Jarvie was named to the PAC Sportsmanship Team.

Nelson secured half of his singles wins against PAC rivals, ranging from the third to fifth spot. Against Waynesburg University, he jumped to No. 3 and won 6-0, 6-3. He defeated the No. 4 players from Saint Vincent, 6-1, 6-4, and Geneva College, 6-2, 7-5. Playing with Stasolla, the Gator duo went 4-2, highlighted by an 8-0 shutout against Westminster.

Curtis dropped only three combined games in a pair of PAC wins against Geneva and Westminster College. He also earned regular-season triumphs over NAIA Spring Arbor University during the spring break trip in Florida and Division II Daemen University in the fall.