Nikolai Parodi, Nic Meister Win SCIAC Men's Tennis Athlete, Newcomer of the Year Honors

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Junior Nikolai Parodi was named the SCIAC Men's Tennis Athlete of the Year for the third year in a row, freshman Nic Meister earned the league's Newcomer of the Year Award, and the No. 1-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's tennis team had five All-SCIAC honorees in a vote of the league's coaches, the conference office announced today.

Head Coach Paul Settles and his staff (assistant coaches Chris Fabrizio, Lestter Yeh and Warren Wood) were also named the SCIAC Coaching Staff of the Year after guiding the Stags to a 27-1 regular season record and the No. 1 ranking in the nation (after coming in as preseason No. 6 team). Parodi was joined on the All-SCIAC first team by sophomore Jack Katzman and senior Julian Gordy, while Meister and sophomore Robert Liu were chosen to the second team. 

Parodi, who plays both No. 1 singles and doubles for the Stags, earned the SCIAC Men's Tennis Athlete of the Year for the third year in a row and will have the rare opportunity to be a four-time Player of the Year next season as a senior. After studying abroad in the fall, he has come back this spring to win 36 matches heading into the postseason (18-6 in singles and 18-7 in doubles), giving him 149 wins in three seasons, well on pace to capture 200 in his career. He is coming off a singles and doubles sweep at the Ojai Tournament this weekend, the third year in a row that he was both of those events as well, earning the SCIAC Athlete of the Week for the second time. 

Meister stepped up in a big way for the Stags over the second half of the season to help solidify the bottom part of the line-up. He moved into the No. 6 singles spot for back-to-back matches against No. 1 Chicago and No. 2 Middlebury and earned wins in both, helping CMS move up from No. 4 to No. 1. Meister came as close as you can to going undefeated in dual matches this spring, only falling in his very last regular season match to Pomona-Pitzer in three sets (12-10 in the third-set tiebreaker), as he stands at 13-1 in dual matches heading into the conference tournament. 

Katzman, who was the national runner-up in singles in the NCAA Division III Championships last year, was virtually unbeatable in singles this season, standing at 26-2 overall, and 20-0 in dual matches this spring (his only two losses were in the championships of fall ITA Tournaments). Since dropping the first set 7-5 against RPI on March 10, Katzman has won 35 sets in a row, without going past 6-4 in any of them. He also has a 23-6 record in doubles, giving him 49 wins this season and 100 career wins as only a sophomore. 

Gordy, a two-year captain for the Stags, has compiled a 19-9 record in singles and 16-4 in dual matches, mostly playing in the No. 3 spot. He has also picked up a team-leading 25 wins in doubles, including joining Parodi for the championship of the Ojai Tournament this weekend. His career win total now stands at 150, and he will look to earn All-America honors in doubles for the third straight season later this month at the NCAA Division III Championships in Kalamazoo, Michigan. 

Liu enters the postseason with 36 wins for the Stags as well, including a 20-5 mark in doubles. His singles record stands at 16-6, with a 14-5 mark in duals, mostly at the No. 4 position. He and Katzman also turned heads with three wins at the Pacific Coast Doubles Championships, knocking off the No. 3 doubles team from UCLA in the third round. 

CMS will open SCIAC Tournament play tomorrow, when it hosts Caltech at 3 p.m. at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center. A win in that match would enable the Stags to host the championship on Saturday at 1 p.m. against the winner between Redlands and Pomona-Pitzer.