Northwestern University Athletics
`Cats Collect All-Conference Honors
4/23/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Apr. 23, 2015
EVANSTON, Ill. -- The Big Ten announced the 2015 All-Big Ten Teams and individual award winners Thursday morning, and three Wildcats garnered conference distinctions. Sophomore Sam Shropshire made First-Team All-Big Ten, and classmate Strong Kirchheimer was named Second-Team All-Big Ten. Senior Alex Pasareanu earned one of twelve sportsmanship awards.
A unanimous selection for the First-Team All-Big Ten this year, Shropshire was also a member in 2014 along with being Big Ten Freshman of the Year. The sophomore has anchored the No. 1 spot in singles and recently in doubles for the `Cats this spring.
Shropshire boasts an overall singles record of 23-9 and is 9-1 against conference opponents. He has also achieved career-high rankings this season: (currently) No. 42 in singles and No. 44 in doubles with Pasareanu. Last weekend, he earned his eighth straight singles win by beating the highest-ranked opponent of his career thus far: No. 21 Leandro Toledo of Minnesota.
This is Kirchheimer's first all-conference season award of his career. The sophomore has turned in invaluable performances at No. 2 singles and doubles this season.
Kirchheimer is 24-9 overall in singles and 7-4 in Big Ten play, and has split time on courts 1 and 2 in doubles with junior Fedor Baev. This spring, he reached career-high national rankings of No. 64 in singles and No. 85 in doubles with Baev.
Pasareanu is finishing his Wildcat career right as he collects his second straight Big Ten Sportsmanship Award. He has made a major impact in doubles competition this spring, and attained a career-high ranking of No. 44 with Shropshire.
No. 30 Northwestern is 19-8 on the season and 8-3 in conference play. Finishing fourth in the Big Ten at the end of the regular season, the `Cats are the No. 4 seed in this weekend's tournament. NU has a bye today and will play the winner of the 5th-seed Indiana/12th-seed Purdue match in the quarterfinals on Friday at 10 a.m.
MEN'S TENNIS ALL-BIG TEN TEAMS
First-Team All-Big Ten
FARRIS GOSEA, Illinois
Aron Hiltzik, Illinois
JARED HILTZIK, Illinois
Tim Kopinski, Illinois
Matt Hagan, Iowa
Gijs Linders, Michigan State
LEANDRO TOLEDO, Minnesota
Matic Spec, Minnesota
SAM SHROPSHIRE, Northwestern
Dusty Boyer, Nebraska
CHRIS DIAZ, Ohio State
MIKAEL TORPEGAARD, Ohio State
Second-Team All-Big Ten*
Aleks Vukic, Illinois
Sam Monette, Indiana
Strong Kirchheimer, Northwestern
Hunter Callahan, Ohio State
Kevin Metka, Ohio State
Leonard Stakhovsky, Penn State
Josef Dodridge, Wisconsin
Unanimous selections in CAPS
* Additional honorees due to a tie
Individual Awards
Athlete of the Year: Leandro Toledo, Minnesota
Freshman of the Year: Mikael Torpegaard, Ohio State
Coach of the Year: Geoff Young, Minnesota
Sportsmanship Award Winners
Blake Bazarnik, Illinois
Dan Bednarczyk, Indiana
Andres Estenssoro, Iowa
Davis Crocker, Michigan
Gijs Linders, Michigan State
Matic Spec, Minnesota
Bradford Zitsch, Nebraska
Alex Pasareanu, Northwestern
Hunter Callahan, Ohio State
Roman Trkulja, Penn State
Diego Acosta, Purdue
Jose Maria Martin De Oliva Carranza, Wisconsin
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