Robert Liu Named SCIAC Athlete of Year, Five Earn All-League Honors

CLAREMONT, Calif - Senior Robert Liu was named the SCIAC Men's Tennis Athlete of the Year, as well as earning the league's Character Award, while five members of the Stags earned all-conference accolades, the SCIAC office announced this morning.

Liu was joined on All-SCIAC first team by Jack Katzman and Matthew Robinson, while Ethan Carroll and Christopher Li were on the second team. All three of the Stag seniors (Katzman, Liu, Carroll) finished off their careers with spots on the all-league squads. 

Liu has had a fantastic senior season, moving up to the No. 1 spot in the lineup this year after typically playing in the No. 4 and No. 5 spots earlier in his career. He enters the postseason with a 20-3 record in singles, including 14-2 in dual matches. His only defeats this year include one in a dual with USC, and two against Stan Morris of Middlebury (the ITA Cup quarterfinals in October in three sets and a dual in March). 

Katzman heads into the postseason with an 18-8 mark in singles after battling through some injury issues early in the spring. He is a perfect 6-0 in SCIAC matches, and he also has a 19-8 mark in doubles with four different partners. Katzman has been a three-time All-American in singles in his career, including finishing second in the NCAA Division III Singles Championship as a first-year in 2018. 

Robinson has had an outstanding debut season with CMS, tallying a 19-2 singles record, including 16-1 in dual matches. One of his two losses was to teammate Ethan Carroll in the ITA West Regionals in October, while his only other defeat came in a team win against No. 6 Williams in March. He has also been a regular in the doubles lineup and has an 18-6 record with eight different partners. 

Carroll reached the ITA West Regional finals in singles in the fall and advanced to the ITA Cup, while currently sporting a 21-12 singles record (5-0 in SCIAC). Li leads the team in singles wins at 22-6 (5-0 in SCIAC), and had big three-set wins in victories over No. 3 WashU and No. Trinity at the Stag-Hen Invitational in March. 

CMS opens SCIAC play with a home match against Occidental at 3 p.m. on Friday. The winner will advance to Saturday's championship match against the Pomona-Pitzer vs. Caltech winner, as the Stags will try to win their 16th league title in a row (all without suffering a SCIAC loss).