PSAC Release
KUTZTOWN, Pa. – The Kutztown University men's tennis team, the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Champions, earned the top two postseason honors from the conference on Friday afternoon. Junior Rushi Amin (Orefield, PA/Lake Brantley) was named the PSAC Athlete of the Year and head coach Suresh Ramamurthi earned the PSAC Coach of the Year.
Also earning All-PSAC honors for singles play were sophomores Varun Desai (Mumbai, India/K.C. College) and Matthew Maguire. The doubles team of Amin and Desai earned All-PSAC in doubles play as well.
This season, Amin picked up a career-high 15 wins at No. 1 singles, finishing 5-0 in PSAC competition.
“After winning the Freshman of the Year and seeing Kaushik Das win the Athlete of the Year award two years ago, I told myself that winning this award was a goal of mine,” Amin said. “I am very thankful for everything that coach has given me, and I am very proud of the progress we've made as a team.”
Amin was also named the PSAC Team Men's Tennis Championship Most Valuable Player, as he led his team to the program's 11th league title in school history.
“In the last year, Rushi has really improved on his mental toughness,” Ramamurthi said. “He has really pushed himself to get in better shape and ultimately uses his skill to gain a mental edge on all of his opponents.”
Amin split his doubles season with partners Maguire and Desai for a combined total of 15 wins. Amin and Maguire earned seven wins as a pair during the beginning of the season. Amin then went on to partner with Desai to finish the season undefeated 8-0.
“Varun and Matthew have been instrumental in keeping our middle order strong,” Ramamurthi said. “They are always reliable and always in a positive way to help deliver points to their team on a consistent basis.”
Ramamurthi has earned Coach of the Year league honors four times in his career. Along with 2009 and 2007, he also earned the title in 2002 alongside the NCAA Division II East Region Coach of the Year.
Under his guidance, the Golden Bear men have won 11 of the last 13 PSAC Championships (2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013). The team appeared in 10 consecutive NCAA East Regional qualifiers, winning five in a row from 2002-06 to advance to the NCAA Championship round of 16.
"The men's season is going according to the expectations we put on ourselves at the beginning of the year,” Ramamurthi said. “We used a strong work ethic to make it this far, but this weekend at regionals is where we hope to exceed our expectations.”
The Golden Bears will return to action Sunday, April 28 to face Shaw University in the first round of the NCAA Atlantic Regional tournament hosted by Bluefield State College in West Virginia at 11 a.m. at the Bluefield City Courts.
