Three Illini Earn Regional Honors
July 6, 1999 | Men's Tennis
May 11, 1999
Three members of the University of Illinois men's tennis team were honored today by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) and the Region IV committee, as Oliver Freelove, Gavin Sontag and Head Coach Craig Tiley all earned regional honors. Freelove was named the ITA/Farnsworth Senior Player of the Year, Tiley was chosen as the Wilson ITA Coach of the Year and Sontag was nominated for the National ITA John Van Nostrand Memorial Award.
Freelove is the first Illini netter to win the Senior Player of the Year award for Region IV. He was named the 1999 Big Ten Athlete of the Year earlier this month prior to leading the Illini to their third straight Big Ten Championship. The Illinois senior is the only regional player to be ranked in the top ten nationally in both singles (No. 9) and doubles (No. 5).
For the third time in the past four seasons, Tiley was named the ITA Coach of the Year for Region IV. Tiley, who also earned this regional honor in 1996 and 1998, has led the Illini to three straight Big Ten titles. He cracked the century mark in career wins this year and is currently 109-54 in just six years.
Sontag was nominated for the National John Van Nostrand Memorial Award, given to a collegiate tennis player who has exhausted his college eligibility and plans to play professionally in the future. The Illini senior is the winningest singles player in school history despite missing the past two months with a broken hip. Sontag should return this weekend at the NCAA Regionals.
Freelove, Sontag and Tiley are now in a select group of seven other regional winners to be considered for national honors later this year. The University of Illinois men's tennis team hosts the NCAA Regionals this weekend in hopes of advancing to the NCAA Championships, to be played from May 22-30 in Athens, Ga.
