University of Tennessee Athletics
Handoyo and Mahony Win ITA Region III Tennis Awards
May 07, 2002 | Men's Tennis
May 7, 2002
Tennessee's Peter Handoyo and Chris Mahony were named winners of the Region III Senior Player of the Year and Assistant Coach of the Year respectively, by
the ITA Tuesday. Winning the Region III awards makes them both one of eight nominees for the same awards on the national level.
Handoyo, the seventh-ranked player nationally, has added many awards and titles to his portfolio this season including: two-time SEC player of the week, SEC singles and doubles champion, First-team All-SEC singles, academic All-SEC, second winningest Vol in history with 140 wins and now Region III senior player of the year. Handoyo has been a great leader for the Vols this season and he has obviously improved as a player both in college and on the pro level, where he went undefeated this season while playing Davis Cup for Indonesia and he also won two doubles tournaments on the ATP Futures tour last fall. That was key in Peter also being named Tuesday as the Region III finalist for the John Van Nostrand Award, which annually gives a stipend to a worthy senior who is expected to be able to succeed on the pro tour. Handoyo, who is currently 23-2 on the season, as of now will playing in the No. 1 spot for the Vols during the NCAA tournament.
"Pete is very deserved of any awards he receives," Mahony said. "He has been an unbelieveable asset to our program for four years and he will continue to be when he leaves here to go onto the pro tour."
Mahony, who is in his third year as an assistant coach with the Vols, is winning the Region III assistant coach of the year award for the first time. Mahony was a two-time All-America performer as a player for the Vols from 1993-1996 and was the Vols first and only academic All-America performer in 1996. Mahony has been a great assistant coach for the Volunteers, working especially with the doubles teams and spending a lot of practice time with certain individual players. He has helped turn the Vols doubles teams into one of the finest units in the nation and his time spent with individual players has definately paid off for the Vols. Mahony's fantastic and often exhaustive work as an assistant coach cannot only be seen on the court, as he has been the foundation of several events that the Volunteers have hosted since he arrived. He has served as either tournament director or co-director for the 2001 and 2002 UT Fall Classics, the 2001 Omni Hotels Region III Championships, the 2000 and 2001 O'Charley's Classics, the 2002 SEC Outdoor Championships, the 2000, 2001 and 2002 NCAA regionals and the 2000-2002 USTA Challenger.
Mahony has been instrumental in bringing the pro Challenger to UT, which has featured such players as James Blake, Michael Chang, Andy Roddick and Chris Woodruff.
"This is a great honor to be given an award by our governing body (ITA)," Mahony said. "I do have to give most of the credit to the guys, they have put in so many hours and really just made it easy for us to succeed as a team. We have been privelaged to have this group of guys. I have also been very fortunate to receive great guidance and advise from Coach Fancutt ."
Times Announced for NCAA Tennis Regional
The Tennessee tennis team will be hosting one of 16 regionals for the NCAA tournament Saturday and Sunday, May 11 and 12 at the Varsity Tennis Center on the UT campus. The opening match of the regional will feature North Carolina versus Virginia Tech Saturday, beginning at 9 a.m. The Vols will then face Wake Forest at approximately 1 p.m. The regional final has been set for Sunday at 1 p.m.
