Men's tennis seniors Matt Fontanese and Mason Groff have been selected as recipients of the Director of Athletics Award.
The Director of Athletics Award is selected each year based on input from coaches and athletic department senior staff and honors a student-athlete who exemplifies perseverance, loyalty, and spirit to the team and Ursinus College, and is a positive influence on his/her teammates.
Fontanese and Groff set an unprecedented standard of excellence this spring, becoming the first doubles team in school history to collect first team All-Centennial Conference honors. The seniors went 5-2 in a conference-only slate, landing a mere three points short of an undefeated campaign.
The duo spent three years as the Bears' No. 1 doubles unit, going a robust 24-9 together. They made history a year ago as the first Ursinus partners to advance to the quarterfinals of the ITA Southeast Regional championship.
Co-captains of the 2021 squad, Fontanese and Groff leave with remarkably similar career resumes. Both finished with 63 career victories, tied for 9th in program history; Groff's career total of 40 doubles wins is tied for fifth. Each is a classroom standout, receiving three ITA Scholar-Athlete Awards and being named to the Centennial Conference Academic Honor Roll each of the last three seasons.
Groff also played two seasons of soccer, appearing in two games in 2018, and represented the men's tennis team as secretary the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).
Fontanese served as manager of the volleyball team and was instrumental in the creation of the inaugural Facebook Live stream, which the tennis teams used to broadcast their matches this spring and will continue to use in the coming years.