Trinity's Krimbill, Southwestern's Bajoit Headline 2021 All-SCAC Men's Tennis Team

Trinity's Krimbill, Southwestern's Bajoit Headline 2021 All-SCAC Men's Tennis Team

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - In exclusive voting by the head coaches in the league, Cameron Krimbill of Trinity University and Hunter Bajoit of Southwestern University have been selected the 2021 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Men’s Tennis Co-Players-of-the-Year. Complete Release

In that same balloting, Alessio Azzalini of Trinity earned Newcomer-of-the-Year honors and Tigers’ head coach Russell McMindes earned Men’s Coach-of-the-Year.

Krimbill, a senior from Scottsdale, Ariz., is currently 11-7 overall this season, including a 7-3 mark at No. 1 singles, and is ranked No. 1 in the West Region among all men’s players. While playing at the No. 2 line, he secured two huge wins over a pair of Division I opponents – Abilene Christian and Incarnate Word – with the later victory earning SCAC Player of the Week honors. Krimbill, an ITA All-American in singles which was secured last year after winning the Fall 2019 ITA Regional Singles Championship, has been chosen to compete in the NCAA Singles Championships later this month.

Bajoit, a junior from The Woodlands, Texas, posted a 12-1 mark, including a perfect 11-0 mark at No. 2 singles. Currently the third-ranked singles player in the West Region, Bajoit earned SCAC Player of the Week honors in Week 4 after picking up a win (6-1, 6-3) over NCAA Division I Prairie View A&M's Juan Viada in No. 2 singles. The SCAC Newcomer of the Year in 2019, Bajoit also received an an-large individual invitation to represent Southwestern at the NCAA Singles Championships in Chattanooga, Tennessee, beginning May 24. 

The two stalwarts met three times this year with Krimbill picking up a 6-4, 6-1 victory during the regular season and Bajoit earning a 6-4, 6-3 win at the SCAC Tournament. In what proved to be the rubber match between the two, Krimbill earned the season series nod by securing a 6-4, 6-2 over Bajoit in the Round of 16 team competition at the NCAA Tournament this past weekend.

Krimbill’s selection as Co-POTY marks the 12th time in the last 13 years a Trinity student-athlete has won or shared the award and the 22nd time overall. For Bajoit, he is the second Southwestern student-athlete in program history to earn POTY honors, following former teammate Alexis Dimanche who took home the league’s top honor following the 2018 season. Both picked up three first-place votes in the Player-of-the-Year balloting, with Trinity’s Hao Nguyen receiving the remaining first-place nod.

Azzalini, a sophomore from Rome, Italy, transferred to Trinity from Appalachian State and made an immediate impact for the Tigers. Despite battling injuries and being in and out of the lineup, Azzalini played at No. 1 and No. 2 when healthy, compiling a 6-5 overall mark which included a 5-1 mark over his last six matches. His efforts helped Trinity pick up a huge win over Division I Rice to begin the season and he finished the year undefeated in Division III singles play, including a 7-5, 7-6 (7-3) win over Southwestern’s Alex Joseph at the No. 2 line in the conference tournament.

Azzalini is the fifth Trinity player to earn SCAC Newcomer-of-the-Year honors since the award was instituted prior to the 2014 season, and the first since current teammate Wilson Hamilton took home the honor following the 2018 season.

In his 12th season at the helm, McMindes led his squad to the program’s 25th SCAC tournament championship, defeating Southwestern in the title match. With the victory, the Trinity men's tennis program holds the most SCAC Championships of any program in conference history. The Tigers, who received the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament by winning the conference title, are 16-7 in NCAA competition this year, including a 5-1 decision over Southwestern in the third meeting between the SCAC rivals, this time in the Third Round of the Division III NCAA Championships this past weekend. With the victory, Trinity advances to the NCAA Quarterfinals for the first time since 2015, the 18th time overall, and the sixth time since McMindes took over the program.

McMindes has earned at least a share of the Coach-of-the-Year honor in 10 of his prior 11 seasons leading the Tigers.

For the first time in the history of All-SCAC tennis voting, in addition to the Player-of-the-Year, Newcomer-of-the-Year and Coach-of-the-Year balloting, the coaches also voted for an All-SCAC singles team and an All-SCAC doubles team. Coaches voted for 12 players for All-SCAC singles, in rank order, with a first-place vote worth 12 points, a second-place vote worth 11 points, on down to a 12th-place vote being worth one point. The coaches also voted for six teams for All-SCAC doubles, with a first-place vote worth six points, a second-place vote worth five points, on down to a sixth-place vote being worth one point. The top six singles players were recognized as First Team and the next six as Second Team. The top three doubles teams were recognized as First Team and the next three doubles teams as Second Team.

2021 SCAC MEN’S TENNIS CO-PLAYERS-OF-THE-YEAR
Cameron Krimbill, Trinity University, Senior, Scottsdale, Ariz.
Hunter Bajoit, Southwestern University, Junior, The Woodlands, Texas

2021 SCAC MEN’S TENNIS NEWCOMER-OF-THE-YEAR
Alessio Azzalini, Trinity University, Sophomore, Rome, Italy

2021 SCAC MEN’S TENNIS COACH-OF-THE-YEAR
Russell McMindes, Trinity University, SCAC Champions / 16-7 Overall Mark

To view the entire All-SCAC Men's Tennis team, click here.

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