SAN BRUNO, Calif. – Portland junior Michail Pervolarakis has been named the West Coast Conference Player of the Year, while Pilot head coach Aaron Gross earned conference Coach of the Year honors after leading Portland to its first regular season WCC title in program history. The league announced all regular season awards on Wednesday, which were voted on by the WCC's ten head coaches.
Pervolarakis becomes the first Portland men's tennis player to ever earn WCC Player of the Year honors. He posted a 17-2 overall spring dual singles record at the No. 1 position for the Pilots and went 7-1 against WCC competition. Pervolarakis made the All-WCC First Team singles list for the second straight season to join Filip Zivkovic (2008, 2009) as the only Pilots to make the first team twice.
Gross picks up his second WCC Coach of the Year honor after leading the Pilots to the best season in Portland modern tennis history. The Pilots are 18-2 overall, won the WCC regular season title outright with an 8-1 league record, defeated San Diego for the first time in program history and moved to No. 46 in this week's national rankings. Gross also won the honor during the 2014 season.
Pervolarakis teamed up with junior Mathieu Garcia as an All-WCC First Team doubles tandem for the second consecutive season. The duo logged a 9-4 record as the top doubles team for a majority of the spring. Pervolarakis and Garcia join Filip Zivkovic and Evan Schleining (2009, 2010) as the only Pilots to earn multiple WCC First Team doubles honors.
Mathieu Garcia was named to the All-WCC Second Team in singles as well after recording 16-3 record at the No. 2 spot in the lineup. Sophomore Carlos Donat earned honorable mention singles honors after an impressive dual season with a 14-2 record, including 8-0 mark against WCC opponents.
Portland will now shift its focus to this week's WCC Championships held on April 27-29 at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center in Claremont, Calif. The Pilots are the tournament's No. 1 seed and received a bye to Friday's semifinals. Portland will face the winner of San Diego versus San Francisco on Friday at 2 p.m. The WCC Championship match is scheduled for Saturday at 2 p.m. with an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships awarded to the tournament winner.
2017 WCC Men's Tennis Postseason Award Winners
Player of the Year: Michail Pervolarakis, Portland
Coach of the Year: Aaron Gross, Portland
Freshman of the Year: Damon Kesaris, Saint Mary's
All-WCC First Team Singles
Miguel Diaz, Pacific
Guilherme Hadlich, Pepperdine
Damon Kesaris, Saint Mary's
Michail Pervolarakis, Portland
Jacob Sullivan, BYU
Filip Vittek, San Diego
All-WCC Second Team Singles
Gabriel Diaz-Freire, Loyola Marymount
Mathieu Garcia, Portland
Andrew Gu, Santa Clara
Pedro Iamachkine, Pepperdine
Robert Seby, Santa Clara
Mert Zincirli, San Francisco
Singles Honorable Mention: Nick Borchenko, Loyola Marymount; Tadiwa Chinamo, Pacific;
Carlos Donat, Portland; Alex Giannini, Pacific; Johan Jonhagen, San Francisco; Stefan Menichella, Pepperdine; Guilherme Osorio, San Diego
All-WCC First Team Doubles
Nick Borchenko and Gabriel Diaz-Freire, Loyola Marymount
Michail Pervolarakis and Mathieu Garcia, Portland
Filip Vittek and Josh Page, San Diego
All-WCC Second Team Doubles
Aidan Carrazedo and Jacob Sullivan, BYU
Jack Van Slyke and Stefan Menichella, Pepperdine
Guilherme Hadlich and Gabriel Sidney, Pepperdine
Doubles Honorable Mention: Alex Giannini and Miguel Diaz, Pacific; Akram El Sally and Tadiwa Chinamo, Pacific; Damon Kesaris and Nash Vollenweider, Saint Mary's; Connor Garnett and Vasileios Iliopoulos, Santa Clara; Robert Seby and Jesus Tapiador Barajas, Santa Clara
