By Robert McKinney, Assistant Athletics Director, Communications

SALEM, Ore. -- The Willamette University men's tennis team has qualified for All-Academic Team status from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) for the 2019-20 season. Five members of the Bearcat men's tennis team also were named ITA Scholar-Athletes. Willamette players who received the individual academic honor were Colin Fisher (Sr., Caldwell, ID/Thomas Jefferson Charter School), Luke Hiserman (Jr., Monterey, CA/Pacific Grove HS), Jordan Megiveron (Fy., Edmonds, WA/Edmonds-Woodway HS), Gene Perle-Jones (Sr., Eugene, OR/North Eugene HS), and Andrew Kropp (Fy., Bend, OR/Summit HS). Fisher received the honor for the fourth consecutive season, while Hiserman qualified for the award for the third year in a row.

"This achievement is one of our top goals every year, and I am so proud of them once again to achieve this as a team and to congratulate our individual players as well. Student-athletes excel on and off the court and the men's team is on top with also winning the WU Men's GPA award this year."
-- Willamette Director of Tennis/Head Coach Rick Wood

Hundreds of All-Academic Teams and thousands of ITA Scholar-Athletes were selected nationwide from men's tennis squads competing in NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, the NAIA and junior colleges.

The All-Academic Team award was received with a cumulative team grade point average of 3.20 or higher on a 4.0 scale during the academic year. All varsity letterwinners were included in each team's overall GPA. Willamette's team qualified for the award for the third consecutive season.

Scholar-Athlete status was achieved if a player was a varsity letterwinner with a grade point average of at least 3.50 (4.0 scale) during the 2019-20 academic year. Athletes had to attend their current college or university for a least two semesters.

Willamette is a member of NCAA Division III and the Northwest Conference. In Division III, a total of 125 teams were chosen for the men's All-Academic list and 958 men's tennis players registered Scholar-Athlete status. In the NWC, All-Academic Team honors were awarded to seven men's teams, while 47 men's players were named ITA Scholar-Athletes.

ITA Scholar-Athlete Award

Colin Fisher (Sr.) received ITA Scholar-Athlete recognition for the fourth consecutive season. In 2019-20, he played singles and doubles in four of five dual matches, although one singles match and one team match were not completed.

During his Willamette career, Fisher competed in 45 of 46 matches in both singles and doubles for the Bearcats. In singles, he played in nine matches at the #2 position and 21 matches at #3 singles, plus three matches at #4, and six matches each at #5 and #6. In doubles, he battled in 17 matches at the #1 position and 28 matches at #2. Fisher recently graduated with a majoring in Physics and a minor in Mathematics and Spanish.

Luke Hiserman (Jr.) was named an ITA Scholar-Athlete for the third year in a row. This past year, he saw singles action during all five matches and also competed in four doubles matches. He played #4 singles once and #5 singles four times while playing at #3 doubles four times.

In his career with the Bearcats, he has seen action in all 32 singles matches and in 31 doubles matches. He has played six singles matches at the #4 position, with 26 matches at #5 and three matches at #6. All of his doubles matches have been at the #3 position. In the classroom, Hiserman is majoring in Environmental Science.

Jordan Megiveron (Fy.) saw action in one of Willamette's dual matches as a first-year player in 2019-20. He played #6 singles and #3 doubles against Lewis & Clark College during the fall portion of the season.

Megiveron competed in four years of varsity tennis as a student-athlete at Edmonds-Woodway High School in Edmonds, Washington. He served as a team captain and helped Edmonds-Woodway claim a league title. Megiveron, who was a member of the National Honor Society at EWHS, is majoring in Economics at Willamette.

Gene Perle-Jones (Sr.) played in all five matches this past season in both singles and doubles competition. He defeated Cameron Ventura of Linfield College, 6-4, 6-1, at #3 singles, and combined with Fisher for an exciting 8-7 (7-5) victory in a tie-breaker against the #1 doubles team from Otterbein College (Ohio).

Perle-Jones has competed during three seasons for the Bearcats. He has played in 31 singles matches and 31 doubles matches. A total of 12 of his singles matches have been at the #1 position, with nine matches at #2 and 10 matches at #3. In doubles, he has competed in five #1 matches and in 26 matches at the #2 position. Perle-Jones is majoring in Exercise Science.

Andrew Kropp (Fy.) was in the singles lineup in four matches and in the doubles lineup in all five matches this past spring. One of his singles matches was not completed. All of his singles matches were at the #6 position. He played four matches at #3 doubles and one match at #2 doubles.

Prior to attending Willamette, Kropp was a four-year letterwinner at Summit High School in Bend, Oregon. He served as a team captain in high school. Kropp is majoring in Economics.

Note:  Academic year listed for each player is for the 2019-20 season.