LANCASTER, Pa. – Ursinus College men's tennis seniors Matt Fontanese and Mason Groff staked their claim as two of the all-time greats with a first team All-Centennial Conference doubles selection, and rookie Lars Jespersen received honorable mention in singles to put a bow on a banner season for the Bears.
Fontanese and Groff are the first partners in program history to be named to the All-CC first team following a spring campaign in which they very nearly went undefeated. The senior tandem finished 5-2 together on the No. 1 court, going toe to toe with the conference's best and proving they belonged among them.
Fontanese and Groff had multiple match points in one of their setbacks, and the other was an 8-6 defeat in a tiebreaker; in effect, they were only three points from an undefeated season. The team captains won their first three matches, including a tiebreaker at Gettysburg, before dropping an 8-6 breaker to Dickinson. Their only other loss was to Thomas Yu and James Yu of national power Johns Hopkins, a marathon thriller in which the Bears' tandem failed to capitalize on multiple match-point opportunities. Thomas Yu was named rookie of the year and was also a first team singles selection.
In their Ursinus careers, Fontanese and Groff went 24-9 together and finished with an identical individual win total (63, good for 9th in school history). Groff was a remarkable 40-14 overall in his doubles career, good for fifth all-time in doubles wins.
Fontanese was also named to the All-Sportsmanship Team.
Jespersen enjoyed a stellar rookie campaign, winning five of his seven matches at No. 3 singles. All of his victories were in straight sets, and both setbacks came at the hands of all-conference performers: Justin Pace of F&M (first team), and James Yu (second team).
Jespersen is the first Ursinus freshman to be named to the all-conference singles team since Caleb Kramer in 2015.