University of Tennessee Athletics
Libietis Earns Fourth All-SEC Honor
April 23, 2015 | Men's Tennis
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Coming into the final month of his resurgent senior season for Tennessee, Mikelis Libietis earned All-SEC honors for the fourth time, the conference announced Thursday.
Libietis collected first-team honors for the fourth consecutive year. He is the seventh Vol in men's tennis history to earn All-SEC honors all four years of his career.
Leading at the top of the lineup, Libietis is 23-3 in singles this season, including a near-perfect 17-1 in team dual matches. He went 7-1 in SEC play and is currently ranked 16th nationally.
During the fall, Libietis and Hunter Reese added to their prestigious doubles hardware. They captured their third national doubles title, becoming the first team in college tennis history to win back-to-back titles at the ITA All-American Championships.
They followed that a month later by winning the Knoxville Challenger in front of a packed home crowd at Goodfriend Tennis Center.
On April 4, Libietis scored a straight-set singles win at Arkansas to become the fifth Vol ever to reach 100 career wins in both singles and doubles. He enters the postseason with 103 singles wins (9th in program history) and 115 doubles wins (tied for fifth in program history).
This season has been a return to form for the Latvia native, who had an up-and-down junior year in which he went 23-15 and spent half the spring playing the No. 2 position. He had a breakout year as a sophomore in 2013 in which he earned SEC Player of the Year honors and became the first Vol to simultaneously hold the No. 1 ranking in singles and doubles.
Next week, Libietis is on track to receive invitations to the NCAA singles and doubles championships for the fourth consecutive year. Last season, he and Reese became the first Tennessee team since 1980 to win the NCAA doubles title.
Note: Six previous Vols to earn four all-conference accolades include John-Patrick Smith (2008-11), Boris Conkic (2008-11), Peter Handoyo (1999-2002), Shelby Cannon (1985-88), Byron Talbot (1985-88) and Paul Van Min (1972-75).
