COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Texas A&M added a pair of All-America honors to their impressive season-long list of accolades Wednesday afternoon. Juniors Harrison Adams and Shane Vinsant were ranked No. 10 in the final ITA Doubles poll, earning automatic ITA All-America status.
The Aggies finished the season with a trio of All-Americans, senior Jeremy Efferding earned the honor after advancing to the Round of 16 two weeks ago at the NCAA Individual Championships in Waco. This season’s three All-Americans matched a program best set in 2003 by Lester Cook, Ante Matijevic and Ryan Newport.
Adams and Vinsant finished No. 10 in the final ITA doubles rankings, going 12-5 against ranked duos, including an unheard of 4-1 ledger against top-5 tandems. The junior tandem made their first appearance in the NCAA doubles field; both competed in the singles bracket in 2014. Vinsant earned All-American honors after advancing to the Round of 16 a season ago.
Efferding and fellow senior Jordan Szabo were ranked 56 in the final doubles poll; the pair was a last minute substitute in the doubles bracket falling to No. 40 Tomislav Greguriviuc and Tin Ostijic of Wichita State.
Five Aggies were among the ranked players in the final singles poll. Leading the charge was All-American Efferding at 34th. In the NCAA Singled Championship Efferding defeated No. 27 Or Ram-Harel of Tulsa and No. 16 Romain Bogaerts of Wake Forest before being eliminated by eventual singles national champion No. 2 Ryan Shane of Virginia.
Rounding out the Aggies in the singles poll were No. 63 Vinsant, No. 84 Adams, No. 92 Arthur Rinderknech and No. 94 AJ Catanzariti. Texas A&M was one of just four teams to finish with five or more ranked singles players; joining No. 3 Baylor, No. 6 Illinois and No. 7 Southern Cal.
A player can earn All American honors from the ITA in singles play by earning a Top-16 seed in the singles tournament, reach the round of 16 as an unseeded player or finish in the top 20 in the final ITA singles poll. Similarly for doubles participants, earning a top-8 seed in the doubles bracket, reach the quarterfinals as an unseeded team or finish in the top 10 in the final ITA doubles poll results in All-America status.
Texas A&M recently completed the team portion of the NCAA Men’s Tennis Championship, finishing the season 24-5 after being eliminated by eventual national champion Virginia, 4-0, in the national quarterfinals. It marked the second time in program history the Aggies advanced to the Elite 8.
Visit 12thMan.com for more information on Texas A&M men’s tennis. Aggie fans also can keep up to date with the A&M men’s tennis team on Twitter by following @AggieMTEN or on Facebook at Facebook.com/AggieMensTennis.
For the complete final ITA national and region rankings, go to itatennis.com.
Quotes:
Texas A&M Head Coach Steve Denton
“All season long we have had great senior leadership. That all started with Jeremy (Efferding) and it was great to see him become an All-American in Waco. Then today we heard the great news that Shane (Vinsant) and Harrison (Adams) also earned All-American honors for being ranked in the top-10 of the doubles poll. Coming into the season doubles was a big question mark, but Harry and Shane have led from the front winning a bunch of doubles matches against really good competition.”
Junior Harrison Adams
“It feels great to be named an All-American. Our team worked hard all year and I believe it paid off. I am already looking forward to getting started for next season.”
Junior Shane Vinsant
“I’m really excited about becoming an All-American with Harry. It feels great to achieve that with any partner, but I think it’s even more exciting to do it with a partner you’ve stuck with for a long time. I’m also looking forward to what next year has in store for us and the team.”
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics