June 25, 2018
By Joanne Norell
NOTRE DAME, Ind. — The University of Notre Dame men’s tennis team set a program record when the Atlantic Coast Conference announced its All-ACC Academic Men’s Tennis Team on Monday, placing five student-athletes on the list for the first time since joining the conference.
Senior Brendon Kempin, juniors Grayson Broadus and Alex Lebedev and freshmen Richard Ciamarra and Tristan McCormick earned spots on this season’s all-academic squad. Notre Dame’s five selections tied for second in the conference with Wake Forest, following Duke’s six selections.
It was the second career all-academic team honor for both Kempin and Lebedev, who were also named to the squad last season. It is the first career honor for Broadus, Ciamarra and McCormick.
A captain as a senior, Kempin — a native of Sandy, Utah — anchored the Irish atop the doubles lineup (along with McCormick), posting a 16-21 overall record, including 13-14 in dual matches. The pair finished the season ranked No. 56 in the Oracle/ITA doubles rankings. Kempin graduated in May with a degree in finance and will begin his career in private wealth management at First Republic Bank in Palo Alto, California.
A native of Island Park, New York, Lebedev led the Irish atop the lineup and finished the season ranked at No. 40 in the Oracle/ITA singles rankings. He boasted a 20-14 overall record, including 11-10 in dual matches. He was an All-ACC Second Team Selection after competing in all three collegiate grand slams in the 2017-18 season (ITA All-American Championships, ITA Fall National Championship and NCAA Singles Championship), and was named the ITA Midwest Region Player to Watch. Lebedev is pursuing a double major in Liberal Studies and Russian.
Broadus, an Accountancy major from Carollton, Texas, reached the 20-win plateau for the first time in his career, posting a 20-13 overall record, including 14-7 in dual matches. Broadus was a solid performer at the No. 6 spot for the Irish and provided last-match-on clinchers in 4-3 wins over Louisville (March 10) and Duke (April 6) in 2018.
Ciamarra, from Southington, Connecticut, has moved steadily up the lineup to the No. 2 spot after starting the year 4-0 at No. 5. He leads the Irish in singles wins with a 23-16 record, including 19-9 in dual matches. He also posted a 24-15 mark in doubles, with a 16-12 dual record. Following the season, Ciamarra was named to the All-ACC squads as a third-team honoree.
McCormick was a mainstay in both the singles and doubles lineup as a rookie, reaching 20 overall singles wins while partnering with Kempin as the nation’s 56th-ranked doubles squad. The Berwyn, Pennsylvania, product posted a 20-15 singles mark (15-13 dual), as well as 14-16 doubles record (11-14 dual).
2018 All-ACC Academic Men’s Tennis Team
Yizhou Liu, Fr., Clemson (Psychology)
Nicolas Alvarez****, Sr., Duke (Political Science)
Spencer Furman**, So., Duke (Psychology)
Bobby Levine, So., Duke (Public Policy)
Catalin Mateas**, Jr., Duke (Evolutionary Anthropology)
Sean Sculley, Fr., Duke (Undeclared)
Nick Stachowiak**, So., Duke (Psychology)
Aziz Dougaz, Jr., Florida State (Sport Management)
Alex Knaff, So., Florida State (Physics)
Lucas Poullain**, Sr., Florida State (Sport Management)
Andrew Li**, Jr., Georgia Tech (Business Administration)
Daniel Yun, Sr., Georgia Tech (Business Administration)
George Hedley, Jr., Louisville (Marketing)
Christopher Morin-Kougoucheff**, Jr., Louisville (Finance)
Parker Wynn, So., Louisville (Marketing)
Blaine Boyden**, Jr., North Carolina (Business Administration)
Benjamin Sigouin, Fr., North Carolina (Undecided)
Alexis Galarneau, So., NC State (Business Administration)
Michael Ogden, Jr., NC State (Business Administration)
Grayson Broadus, Jr., Notre Dame (Accountancy)
Richard Ciamarra, Fr., Notre Dame (Undeclared)
Brendon Kempin **, Sr., Notre Dame (Finance)
Alex Lebedev **, Jr., Notre Dame (Liberal Studies, Russian)
Tristan McCormick, Fr., Notre Dame (Undeclared)
Aswin Lizen, Jr., Virginia (Commerce)
Carl Söderlund**, So., Virginia (Arts & Sciences Undeclared)
Carlo Donato Beccaria, Fr., Virginia Tech (Business)
Mitch Harper, Jr., Virginia Tech (Finance)
Jason Kros, Jr., Virginia Tech (Human Nutrition and Food Exercise)
Bar Botzer, Fr., Wake Forest (Undeclared)
Petros Chrysochos, Jr., Wake Forest (Communication)
Christian Seraphim***, Sr., Wake Forest (Business & Enterprise Management)
Yuval Solomon, Fr., Wake Forest (Undeclared)
Julian Zlobinsky, Jr., Wake Forest (Politics & International Affairs)
*- denotes number of All-ACC Academic honors
—
For the latest on all things Irish men’s tennis, follow @NDMensTennis on Twitter and like Notre Dame Men’s Tennis on Facebook.
–ND–
Joanne Norell, athletics communications assistant director at the University of Notre Dame, has been part of the Fighting Irish athletics communications team since 2014 and coordinates communications efforts for the Notre Dame men’s tennis and fencing programs, in addition to assisting with football communications and overseeing production of the football Gameday Magazine. Norell is a 2011 graduate of Purdue University and earned her master’s degree from Georgetown University in 2013.