ROCK HILL, S.C. (TheSAC.com) – Catawba's Edoardo Cecere was voted the 2024 South Atlantic Conference Men's Tennis Player of the Year, while UVA Wise's Yi-Hsuan Chen was voted the Conference's Freshman of the Year.  In addition, Wingate head coach Derrick Taylor was named the Coach of the Year, the SAC office announced today.

Cecere, a graduate student from Turin, Italy, played No. 1 singles in every match this season, going 11-1 in conference play. Cecere has not dropped a set in any of his 11 wins in conference play and owns a 16-1 overall record in doubles play with 15 of those coming in the No. 1 spot. Cecere earned a pair of SAC Player of the Week honors and helped turn Catawba from a ninth-place finish in 2023 to second place with the highest national ranking in program history.  

Chen, a freshman from Keelung, Taiwan, finished the regular season with an 11-9 singles record, going 6-4 in the SAC playing 19 of his 20 matches in the No. 1 spot. He also competed at No. 1 doubles, compiling a record of 12-7 overall, going 4-5 in league play. He was 11-5 at No. 1 doubles overall.

Taylor earns the SAC Men's Tennis Coach of the Year honor after guiding the Bulldogs to a perfect 12-0 SAC regular season and has the Bulldogs up to No. 16 in the national poll.  This is the 11th SAC regular season title for the Bulldogs in the last 15 years and enter the SAC Tournament on a 9-match winning streak.

Joining Cecere on the All-SAC first team singles squad are a trio from Wingate including Gabriel Constantino, Florian Walcher and Carlo Rosellini along with Carson-Newman's Marnix Van Dalen and Emory & Henry's Kartik Parhar. 

The All-SAC first team doubles honorees are Cecere and Ryan Little from Catawba, Luka Brown and Hugo Nossler of Wingate and Constantino and Edis Nokic of Wingate.  

2024 SAC Men's Tennis All-Conference

First Team Doubles

Luka Brown / Hugo Nossler – Wingate

Edoardo Cecere / Ryan Little – Catawba

Gabriel Constantino / Edis Nokic - Wingate

Second Team Doubles

Lars Hordijk / Marnix Van Dalen – Carson-Newman

Andre Zamorano / Andres Cortes – Limestone

Harper Mills / Thom Hermans – Lincoln Memorial

Third Team Doubles

Tom Lamers / Thibaut Decaluew – Coker

Vadym Rogynsky / Rufus Plane – Lenoir-Rhyne

David Negzaoui / Joshua Fritz - Newberry

First Team Singles

Edoardo Cecere – Catawba

Marnix Van Dalen - Carson-Newman

Gabriel Constantino – Wingate

Kartik Parhar – Emory & Henry

Florian Walcher – Wingate

Carlo Rosellini – Wingate

Second Team Singles

Vincent Mico Fellonar – Anderson

Marc Janse – Carson-Newman

Nemanja Subanovic – Tusculum

Vadym Rogynski – Lenoir-Rhyne

Alexandru Giurea – Lincoln Memorial

Louca Bertone – Limestone

Third Team Singles

Yi-Hsuan Chen – UVA Wise

Mateo Berne – Catawba

Hugo Nossler – Wingate

Will Gee – Tusculum

Edis Nokic – Wingate

Radu Florea – Lincoln Memorial

Player of the Year

Edoardo Cecere - Catawba

Freshman of the Year

Yi-Hsuan Chen – UVA Wise

Coach of the Year

Derrick Taylor – Wingate