LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - In exclusive voting by the head coaches in the league, Wilson Lambeth of Trinity University has been selected the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Men’s Tennis Player-of-the-Year and first-year Hunter Bajoit of Southwestern University earned Newcomer-of-the-Year honors. Complete Release
In that same balloting, Ryan Dodd of Austin College and Russell McMindes of Trinity split the vote for Men’s Coach-of-the-Year and will share this year’s honor.
Lambeth, a senior from El Paso, Texas, helped lead Trinity to the SCAC tournament title earlier this month – the program’s 10th consecutive – with a victory at No. 1 singles in the semifinals against Schreiner, and a pair of victories at No. 1 doubles (teamed with Jordan Pitts) in both the semifinals and championship match against Southwestern. Lambeth is currently riding a 12-match singles win streak and stands at 15-6 in dual matches. He is ranked sixth among individuals in the most recent ITA West Region rankings and he and Pitts are the top-ranked doubles team in the region as the duo have won eight matches in a row, while sporting a 17-3 record. This season, Lambeth has been tabbed as the SCAC Men’s Tennis Player of the Week four times and has earned the doubles distinction twice with Pitts. His selection as POTY marks the 11th time in the last 12 years a Trinity student-athlete has won the award and the 21st time overall.
Lambeth picked up five votes in the Player-of-the-Year balloting. Southwestern’s Alexis Dimanche, last year’s winner, received the remaining two votes.
Bajoit, a freshman from The Woodlands, Texas, had an impressive inaugural campaign for the Pirates, advancing to the semifinals in the ITA Division III Southwest Men's Regional Championships in men's singles in September and earning a No. 47 national ranking. Bajoit went 18-4 at No. 2 singles and 14-9 at No. 1 doubles, which included wins over teams from Skidmore, Swarthmore and Redlands. The SCAC Player-of-the-Week in Week 3, Bajoit is the second Southwestern player to earn SCAC Newcomer-of-the-Year honors since the award was instituted prior to the 2014 season. Current teammate Alexis Dimanche took home the honor following the 2017 campaign.
Bajoit was the top choice on four ballots for Newcomer-of-the-Year with Austin College’s Brett O’Brien picking up two first-place votes and Trinity’s Cameron Krimbill receiving the remaining vote.
Dodd, in his fifth season as the head coach at Austin College, led the ‘Roos to an 8-8 mark and a third-place finish at the SCAC Championships, which was hosted in Sherman for the first time in league history. Austin College defeated Schreiner University, 5-0, to secure the program’s third consecutive third-place finish - tying the program’s best-ever team finish in the SCAC era. The ‘Roos were ITA regionally-ranked against this season, reaching a high of No. 19 before settling in at No. 20 following the conference tournament. After earning SCAC Women’s Coach-of-the-Year honors the last two seasons, this is Dodd’s first-ever SCAC Men’s Coach-of-the-Year award.
In his 10th season at the helm, McMindes led the Trinity men's team to the program’s 24th SCAC tournament championship, posting a 5-0 win over Southwestern in the title match. The Tigers, who received the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament by winning the conference title, are 16-9 in NCAA competition this year, including a 15-3 mark against Division III opponents, and are 13th in the nation in the latest ITA rankings. The Trinity men's tennis program currently holds the most SCAC Championships of any program in conference history. McMindes has earned at least a share of the Coach-of-the-Year honor in nine of his 10 seasons leading the Tigers.
To view the entire All-SCAC Men's Tennis team, click here.