NEW ORLEANS – The University of South Alabama No. 47 men's tennis team nearly swept all individual awards that were given out by the Sun Belt Conference at its annual awards banquet, as senior Tuki Jacobs (Windhoek, Namibia) was named the Sun Belt Player of the Year for the second-straight year, senior Juan Cruz Soria (San Juan, Argentina) was selected as Sun Belt Newcomer of the Year and Clement Marzol (Toulouse, France) garnered Sun Belt Freshman of the Year. Soria joined Jacobs on the conference singles first team, freshman Loic Cloes (Remicourt, Belgium) was named to the singles second team and Cloes and Soria were chosen to the doubles first team.
 
South Alabama has now claimed the last four SBC Player of the Year awards; Daniel Leitner won in 2014 and 2015. The Jaguars have also had two players on the first team for three of the past four seasons.
 
Jacobs has been named All-Sun Belt in all four years at South Alabama, and has been a first-team pick three times. He notched a 22-6 record overall this season and a 15-4 in dual matches. Splitting time with Soria on the top two flights, Jacobs went 9-3 on court No. 1 and 6-1 on court No. 2.
 
Ranked in the top 100 in the ITA singles rankings in all but one week of the spring season, Jacobs won 13 of his first 14 matches to start the season and was ranked as high as No. 50. He knocked off three ranked opponents during that time: No. 71 Aziz Dougaz of Florida State (6-4, 1-6, 6-4), No. 74 North Florida's Jack Findel-Hawkins (3-6, 6-2, 6-3) and No. 84 Zack Kennedy of Georgia State (4-6, 6-2, 6-4). His win over Findel-Hawkins helped him earn conference player of the week for the third time in his career.
 
In the fall he split a pair of matches in the Saint Francis Health System ITA Men's All-American Championships including win over No. 4 seed and then No. 57 Ryan Peniston of Memphis in the qualifying rounds.
 
Soria went 26-8 this year, including 17-4 in dual matches. He went 9-3 on court No. 2 and 8-1 on court No. 1. He has three wins against top 100 ranked opponents: No. 59 Guy Iradukunda (5-7, 6-4, 6-4) of Florida State, North Florida's Jefta Kecic (7-6, 6-1) at No. 62 and No. 44 Korey Lovett (2-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4) of UCF.
 
Garnering the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week four times, he became the third Jag to be awarded the weekly honor at least four times in a season and was the first to accomplish the feat since Leitner won it five times in 2015.
 
Soria also split a pair of matches in the Saint Francis Health System ITA Men's All-American Championships and was the only other Jag besides Jacobs to participate.
 
Marzol becomes the first Jag to win freshman of the year since the award first started being handed out last year. He went 23-6 on the year, going 12-5 in the spring season and 11-1 in fall tournaments. Rotating between courts No. 3 and 4, he ripped off an eight-win match streak after the spring season-opening Florida State Invitational.
 
His only loss in the fall came to Jordan Daigle (3-6, 6-2, 5-7) of LSU in the ITA Southern Regional Championships but won five of six matches in the tournament. He was undefeated in the Southern Miss Invitational and Battle on the Bayou.
 
Cloes joined the team for the spring season and dropped only two matches in the spring season with 21 wins, tops on the team for the spring, while rotating on the bottom three flights. He dropped his second collegiate career match against Florida State but then won 14-straight matches. During the streak he only had two matches that were unfinished, but he was just one and two sets away from securing a victory. Only two of his 21 wins required three sets.
 
Soria and Cloes were the primary No. 1 doubles pair for the Jags in the spring, and the two went 10-7 on court No. 1. When the two were victorious, the Jags won seven of those matches. They defeated No. 78 Mariano Porter and Harrison Richmond of UCF 6-2.

The Jags return to the courts on Friday and face the No. 7 seed Appalachian State at 6:30 p.m. in the quarterfinals of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.
 
Men's Tennis Awards
 
Player of the Year
Tuki Jacobs (South Alabama)
 
Player to Watch
Stefano Di Aloy (Georgia Southern)
 
Newcomer of the Year
Juan Cruz Soria (South Alabama)
 
Freshman of the Year
Clement Marzol (South Alabama)
 
Coach of the Year
Brett Ross (Georgia State)
 
All-Sun Belt Singles First Team
Tuki Jacobs (South Alabama)
Juan Cruz Soria (South Alabama)
Scott Webster (Appalachian State)
Andrei Andrukhou (Georgia State)
Zackery Kennedy (Georgia State)
Jhonathan Gonzalez (UTA)
 
All-Sun Belt Singles Second Team
Loic Cloes (South Alabama)
Jack Maddocks (Appalachian State)
Vuk Velickovic (Coastal Carolina)
Stefano Di Aloy (Georgia Southern)
Arthur Libaud (Louisiana)
Pablo Moreno (Troy)
 
All-Sun Belt Doubles First Team
Loic Cloes/Juan Cruz Soria (South Alabama)
Scott Webster/Milo Bargeron (Appalachian State)
Jhonathan Gonzalez/Mauricio Del Rio (UTA)
 
All-Sun Belt Doubles Second Team
Zackery Kennedy/Andrei Andrukhou (Georgia State)
Arthur Libaud/Jamie Fraser (Louisiana)
Coleman Wahlborg/Eric Perez (Louisiana)
 
Join the Baseline Club, the tennis-specific support club of the Jaguar Athletic Fund. All donations to the Baseline Club go directly to support the South Alabama men's and women's tennis programs. For more information on how you can join visit:  jaguarathleticfund.com/baselineclub.
 
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).