Photo courtesy of RU Athletics – (L-R) Thomas Dehaen, Nicholas Sayer and Ivan Salec have been named to the Big South Conference all-decade men’s tennis team.
Former Radford University tennis stars Ivan Salec, Nicholas Sayer and Thomas Dehaen have been named to the Big South Hercules Tires All-Decade team. Sayer was named in singles, Dehaen in doubles and Salec in both singles and doubles.
The trio of Highlanders selected was a vital part in the program’s massive success between 2009 and 2012. The team notched 74 victories in that four-year span, won the Big South Championship in 2009, 2011 and 2012 and made three visits to the NCAA tournament.
Salec holds the program record for most doubles victories in his career at 77 and also sits at second all-time for singles victories with 107. During his career at Radford, he picked up Big South and VaSID Freshman of the Year honors in 2008 and multiple VaSID all-state singles and doubles awards. Salec also competed in the 2010 NCAA singles championship while ranked 79th in the nation.
Sayer was another powerful Highlander force in the early half of the decade, amassing 88 singles victories which ranks him fourth all-time at Radford. He was just as effective in doubles with 57 victories which currently sits him at seventh on the all-time list. Sayer was named the Big South Freshman of the Year in 2011 and the conference’s player of the year in 2012. He also added a Scholar-Athlete of the Year award to his shelf in 2014.
Dehaen was named to the all-decade team for doubles. His 72 doubles victories rank second all-time in the program. He was named to the VaSID all-state doubles team in 2010 and the Big South All-Conference Team for doubles three years in a row.
A 15-person committee of Big South Conference administrators served as the official voting panel to determine the all-decade team with fan voting comprising 20 percent of the overall total.
The all-decade team features eight singles players, nine doubles players and one head coach. Named to the team for singles were Amadeo Blasco, Longwood; Sam Matheson, Liberty; Grayson Mills, Presbyterian; Henry Patten, UNC Asheville; Diego Quiroz, Winthrop; Ivan Salec, Radford; Nicholas Sayer, Radford; and Maximilian Scholl, Gardner-Webb.
Named to the team for doubles were Sergey Belov, Winthrop; Amadeo Blasco, Longwood; Thomas Dehaen, Radford; Oli Nolan, UNC Asheville; Henry Patten, UNC Asheville; Ivan Salec, Radford; Maximilian Scholl, Gardner-Webb; Evgeny Slesarev, Gardner-Webb; and Dustin Werner, Campbell.
Named as the team‘s head coach was Chris Powers of Coastal Carolina.
