Julian Gordy, Jack Katzman Earn West Region ITA Honors for CMS Men's Tennis

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced its regional winners for its 2019 postseason awards today, and senior Julian Gordy (Arthur Ashe Award) and sophomore Jack Katzman (Player to Watch) received West Region honors for the No. 1 ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's tennis team.

By winning their regional awards, Gordy and Katzman are now also finalists for national honors, which will be announced on May 20. The ITA Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship & Leadership Award has been presented annually since 1982 to men's and women's players at the NCAA Divisions I, II and III, NAIA and junior college levels who have exhibited outstanding sportsmanship and leadership, as well as scholastic, extracurricular and tennis achievements. Gordy is one of three finalists for the honor, along with Karel Raska of Drew and Chase Johnson of Gustavus Adolphus. 

Gordy, an economics-accounting major at Claremont McKenna with a 3.8 GPA, was also nominated for Academic All-America honors this spring. He has been a two-year captain for the Stags, and has earned All-America honors two times in doubles. He and junior Nikolai Parodi were chosen to compete in the NCAA Division III Doubles Championship, which will be held after the team championships next week, after winning the Ojai Tournament doubles title for the third year in a row on April 28. 

The ITA Player of the Year honor is restricted to the top senior in the nation, while the ITA Player to Watch honor is given to the top underclassmen. Katzman, who is undefeated in dual matches in singles this year and has over 100 career wins as only a sophomore, is one of four finalists, along with Hayden Cassone of Emory, Ethan Hillis of WashU, and Andrew Finkleman of Wesleyan. He was named the SCIAC Men's Tennis Athlete of the Week three times this season, and heads into the NCAA Championship quarterfinal round with a 26-2 record in singles and a 27-6 mark in doubles. His only two singles losses came in the fall, one in the ITA Grasscourt finals match to Grant Urken of Bowdoin, and the other to Chad LeDuff of UC Santa Cruz in the ITA West Region finals.

CMS has a 31-1 record on the year and is the No. 1 ranked team in the nation, as well as the top seed in the NCAA Division III Championships. The Stags will begin play on Monday against Bowdoin in the NCAA quarterfinals in Kalamazoo, Michigan, standing three wins away from the program's third national title.