Men's Tennis Announces Team Awards
5/16/2018 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Michigan State men's tennis head coach Gene Orlando has announced three team awards for the 2017-18 season, as voted on by the team. Brett Forman and Michael Dube shared the Most Valuable Player Award, Josh Mukherjee was named the Most Improved Player, and Ivan Rakic earned the Spartan Spirit Award for the second year in a row.
Forman, a fifth-year senior from Troy, Michigan, played 22 matches at No. 1 singles for the Spartans in his final season and defeated three nationally ranked opponents. He was named the Big Ten Athlete of the Week in men's tennis on April 3 after going undefeated in singles and doubles play against Indiana and Purdue. Forman topped IU's Raheel Manji on March 30 and followed that effort by taking down No. 79 Gergely Madarasz of Purdue the next day. The next weekend, Forman defeated No. 21 Aleks Vukic of Illinois, 7-5, 5-7, 1-0 (10-7). Forman also clinched the dual win at Drake on Feb. 2 with a 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (8-6) victory against Vinny Gillespie.
In addition to his spot at No. 1 singles, Forman was on the No. 1 doubles team along with Jasper Koenen, and the duo led the Spartans with 11 wins, including nine dual victories.
Forman, who was also named the team's Most Valuable Player in 2014 and 2017, finished his Spartan career with 61 wins in singles and 47 victories in doubles.
Dube led the team with an 18-16 record in singles action while playing consistently in the No. 2 position. He also won seven matches in doubles, including a 3-0 record at No. 1 when paired with Mukherjee. Dube's highlight came against Purdue, as he helped win the doubles point for the Spartans, then clinched the dual with a 6-2, 6-7 (6-8), 6-4 comeback victory against Maksymilian Raupuk.
The team's Big Ten Sportsmanship Award winner, Dube was honored with the program's Scholar-Athlete Award at the annual Student-Athlete Support Services Academic Gala in April for having the highest GPA on the team. Last week, Dube was named MSU's male recipient for the Big Ten Postgraduate Scholarship Award. He will use the $7,500 scholarship from the conference to help pay for medical school.
"Brett and Michael both had some quality wins this season and helped us win some big matches throughout the year," said Orlando.
"Brett certainly battled a lot of injuries during his five years here. It's impressive that he stayed with it and was able to get three national wins, including one over a top 25 player in the country. It's a credit to Brett that he came back for his fifth year; he graduated and could have moved on, but he truly loves the game and helped lead our team this year.
"Michael had one of the biggest wins of the year against Purdue, which was definitely one of the highlights of our season. He helped provide leadership to our younger players and did everything you could ask of him, on and off the court."
A true freshman, Mukherjee won nine singles matches and eight doubles matches during his first season with the Spartans. He saw action at all three doubles positions and four singles positions (No. 2, 3, 4, 5).
"Josh continued to develop an all-around game this season," remarked Orlando. "He really improved his backhand and his volleys. From where he came in as a freshman to the end of the year, he made a big jump. He definitely has the potential to step up and be a high lineup player for us next year."
For the second consecutive year, Rakic earned the team's Spartan Spirit Award.
"Ivan was unable to play this season due to an injury," said Orlando, "but he really took it upon himself to do everything he could to contribute to the team without being in the lineup."
The Spartans (8-19) played a very competitive schedule in 2017-18, matching up against 11 teams in the top 50, and all but one of the team's losses were against top-70 opponents.
In the classroom, the Spartans shined once again, posting a spring semester grade-point average of 3.6, the highest in team history. Jack Winkler, Mukherjee and Dube led the way with perfect 4.0 GPAs for the semester.
"We played a great schedule this year," said Orlando. "If we could have gotten a few more points here or there, some of the matches could have turned. Credit to our seniors (Dube, Forman, Koenen) for going until the very end. They had a passion for the game and representing the Green and White was important to them. Our younger players got to see true leaders this season and that will certainly benefit us moving forward into next season."
Players Mentioned
