On Thursday, the East Coast Conference announced the recipients of their annual Elite 19 Award for the ECC's final nine championships of the year that were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The conference decided to award the honor to the student-athlete with the highest GPA in each sport, regardless of their team's spot in the ECC standings when their sport concluded play.
St. Thomas Aquinas College Men's Tennis student-athlete Marcel Volz was named the Men's Tennis Elite 19 Award honoree, posting a 3.94 GPA, while studying Mathematics.
On the court this past season, the Iffezheim, Germany native was named the ECC Preseason Player of the Year and went 11-2 in singles matches and 6-7 in doubles tilts, which also ranked him as the seventh best singles player in the Oracle/ITA East Region.
In his short time in Sparkill, Volz's name has quickly become etched in the team's record books, as he has amassed a 27-9 singles record and an 18-16 mark in doubles play in only two years. He was also named the ECC Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year in his first season back in 2018-2019, along with First Team All-Conference honors.