By: Laura Chapman
Assistant Sports Information Director
chapmal@juniata.edu • juniatasports.net
TOWSON, Md. – The Juniata College men's tennis team dominated the Landmark Conference regular season with a 7-0 record and finished second in the conference championship. The league coaches recognized the success of the team by naming four Eagles to the Landmark All-conference teams, more than any other team. Freshman Dean Polisena (Adelaide Australia/Saint Ignatius) was announced as both Player and Rookie of the Year, marking just the second time in Landmark history that a single player has taken home both awards, and third-year head coach Jason Cohen earned Coach of the Year.
"Dean's play was great – that's what earned him the award," said Cohen. "I think he only played one bad match where he didn't play up to his abilities all year. That was the match against Scranton and other than that I think he played pretty well. That's a hard thing to do being the number one player. You always have that pressure at one that we could be playing a team that is not great, but they have one really good player and you have to play that one player. There's a lot of pressure that come from playing number one and to be able to play well all the time is tough at number one let alone being a freshman at number one. It was a pretty good year all around for him."
Joining Polisena as a First-Team all-conference selection is senior Justin Wisniewski (Moorestown, N.J. / Moorestown), and senior Elliott Perow (Huntingdon, Pa. / Huntingdon) and sophomore Bryan Gregory (Glen Mills, Pa. / Garnet Valley) earned second-team honors with Wisniewski and Gregory named one of three second-team all-conference doubles pairs.
Wisniewski went undefeated in singles during dual match play over the regular season for 18 consecutive wins and set a new program record for career wins (50). Teamed up with Gregory, the No. 2 doubles pair went 18-8 together on the year with a 12-4 record at the No. 2 slot with a 5-2 league record.
"Justin has been a very consistent performer in singles and in doubles. Over the past couple of years he's always been a person that you can count on to play hard and pout his best out there to try and win. That shows in his results over the past couple of years and he's done pretty well," said Cohen.
Perow earned second-team honors for the second year in a row finishing with a 16-7 record, splitting the majority of his matches between the No. 3 and No. 4 singles positions. Perow went 5-2 in his final Landmark season and ended his career on a five-match win streak including winning both singles and doubles in the conference championship.
"It helps that Elliott is a senior and was second-team single last year because the coaches have seen his progress over four years now and the player he has become. That definitely helped him be the lowest seeded player in a lineup to make all-conference," said Cohen. "Elliott was only number four this year, all his other years he was one or two. That is a testament to him as a person. He never said one word about playing number four. He just said, 'if that's where you want me to play that's where I'm going to play and I'll do my best.' He never had any problems with it."
Gregory earned his first all-conference nod after a 15-7 overall season. Gregory went 7-0 at No. 4 doubles this year before moving up to No. 3 where he went 2-1 and ending the season at No. 2 doubles with a 3-2 record. The sophomore posted a 6-1 conference record this year and won 10 consecutive matches this season between March 10 and April 17.
"Bryan made all-conference for both singles and doubles. That's pretty good. That's a tough thing to do. Bryan has improved a lot from last year to this year. He did pretty well last year playing number three singles and this year he moved up to number two and getting three conference wins at number two singles. Last year he had 17 wins and this year he had 15 so that's a strong pace he's setting for himself in terms of wins. He's doing pretty well for himself in his first two years.
This is the first coach of the year award for Cohen. In his three season with Juniata men's tennis the Eagles have amassed a 37-9 overall record and set a new program record for wins in a single season in 2013 and then again in 2014.
"It's a great honor and a sign of respect from my peers that they think I'm doing a good job, but for me, the award is solely based on the hard work of my team. I didn't win a single point this year so everything that we did they accomplished. I try to point them in the right direction, but it's their hard work that caused us to improve. I just hope that they listen to what I say and do it and everything else is up to them after that point and they did a great job this year," added Cohen.
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