SAN DIEGO — Recognition for San Diego men's tennis came across all the WCC end-of-year awards on Tuesday, highlighted by bringing both player and freshman of the year back to America's finest city.
The route to being the No. 1 seed in the WCC tournament and conference champions for a fifth straight season was a team effort as the Toreros racked in a conference-leading nine total all-conference awards round out another exciting regular season for the Toreros.
Highlighting them all, USD senior
Oliver Tarvet won his third consecutive WCC Player of the Year and
Manvydas Balciunas was named Freshman of the Year.
For Tarvet, he became only the third player in WCC men's tennis history to complete the feat of winning three straight player of the year awards. The St. Albans, England native and multi-time All-American saw major personal awards in each of his four years as a Torero, also bringing in Freshman of the Year in his first year in 2023. Tarvet played on main court for each of his singles duals, going 17-2 on the season, 4-2 against ranked opponents, and ending the regular season with an 11-match winning streak. He also had three different partners in doubles play, accumulating an overall record of 15-2 on the season.
Balciunas earned Freshman of the Year as the Dutch native climbed the national rankings up to No. 80 and became the winningest Torero in singles play with an overall record of 13-4, going 2-1 against ranked opponents and 3-1 in conference. It's the second straight season – fourth in the last five – that a Torero has taken home WCC Freshman of the Year.
Tarvet and Balciunas both earned All-WCC Singles First Team honors in helping them earn their major accolades, as senior
Stian Klaassen was named All-WCC Singles Second Team. For Klaassen, it's the fourth straight year he earned All-WCC honors in singles, a 10th career all-conference honor, as the redshirt senior went 10-4 overall on the season, where he had a ranking as high as No. 98.
Three Toreros in
Adrien Berrut,
Neo Niedner and
Lambert Ruland all netted All-WCC Singles Honorable Mention. Berrut, who was the Freshman Player of the Year last year, went 6-3 on the season to earn a second all-conference recognition in as many years. Niedner capped off his collegiate career with a 9-4 season in singles as the senior went on a tear throughout the season where he went 15 straight duals undefeated, winning nine in that stretch. Ruland went 7-4, earning WCC Player of the Week for the week of March 17 where he helped clinch the dual-winning point for San Diego over rivals No. 29 Pepperdine.
In doubles, San Diego took two of the three First Team All-WCC Doubles honors via ITA All-American Championship-winning duo of Tarvet and Klaassen that went 3-0 in conference and the nationally ranked No. 27 duo of Berrut and Ruland. The latter went undefeated in conference, going 11-3 on the season, 3-1 against ranked duos and finished the regular season with a seven-match winning streak, ranking as high as No. 15. The freshman tandem of Balciunas and
Vincent Marysko were undefeated in conference as a duo, earning All-WCC Doubles Honorable Mention.
Up Next
The 16th-ranked Toreros take to Fairfield, Calif. for the WCC Tournament as the No. 1 seed, facing either LMU or Portland in the semifinal at 9 a.m. on Friday, April 24.
