ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Upper Midwest Athletic Conference has announced the men's tennis all-conference teams for the 2022-23 season. For their efforts this past season,
Alex Pinkston was named First Team All-UMAC and
Carson Fisher was named Second Team All-UMAC while
Nicholas Granada and
Matthew Birchmeier were named honorable mentions. In addition, the team won the UMAC Sportsmanship Award while
Britton Struewing was named to the UMAC All-Sportsmanship team.
Pinkston, a sophomore out of Boonville, Indiana, held down the top spot for the Gorloks all season long. In singles, Pinkston went 11-11 on the season with all 22 matches coming in #1 singles. He went 1-2 in #1 singles against UMAC competition with his lone win coming against Westminster (Mo.) College where he defeated Cooper Pennington by final scores of 6-2 and 6-1. In doubles, Pinkston, along with his partner
Matthew Birchmeier, went 18-12 on the year in #1 doubles. The pairs 18 wins is the most in a single season in program history breaking the previous record of 14 set in 2013. Pinkston and Birchmeier went 2-1 in #1 doubles in UMAC play including an 8-0 sweep over Cooper Pennington and John Stannard from Westminster (Mo.) College and an 8-3 win over Juan Segovia and Kuda Sandi from Principia (Ill.) College. Earlier this season, Pinkston became the first Gorlok to be named the UMAC South Division Men's Tennis Player of the Week. This is his first career All-UMAC selection.
Fisher, a sophomore out of Dallas, Texas, competed in #2, #3, #4, and #5 singles this season. He went 5-17 overall on the year including a 2-14 mark in #2 singles, a 1-1 record in #3 singles, a 1-0 record in #4 singles, and a 1-0 record in #5 singles. He went 1-2 in the UMAC with his lone win coming against Westminster (Mo.) College in #2 singles over Aiden Peterson by final scores of 6-1 and 6-3. In doubles, Fisher went 9-16 overall including an 8-16 mark in #2 doubles and a 1-0 record in #3 doubles. He went 1-2 in UMAC doubles with his lone win coming with
Britton Struewing in #2 doubles against Westminster (Mo.) College by a final score of 8-0. This marks his first career All-UMAC selection.
Nicholas Granada and
Matthew Birchmeier also had great seasons for the Gorloks. Granada, a freshman out of Cerritos, California, went 10-11 in singles and 8-10 in doubles. He went 1-0 in #1 singles, 0-1 in #2 singles, 7-9 in #3 singles, and 2-1 in #4 singles while going 2-0 in #2 doubles and 6-10 in #3 doubles. Birchmeier, a junior out of Swartz Creek, Michigan, went 10-9 in singles and 18-12 in doubles. He went 0-4 in #3 singles, 7-4 in #4 singles, and 3-1 in #5 singles while playing all of his 30 matches in #1 doubles.
This marks the second straight season that the men's tennis team has won the conference all-sportsmanship award. The team won the award last year as a member of the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
