Hodges Player of the Year/Ota Rookie of the Year to Headline Three Selections to All-Landmark Teams

Goucher College men's tennis senior Jack Hodges (London, England) was named the 2017-18 Landmark Conference Player of the Year, while first-year Tetsuya Ota (Winter Park, Fla.) earned Landmark Rookie of the Year honors, headlining three total selections for the Gophers to the All-Landmark Conference Teams, which were announced by the conference office on Thursday morning.

Hodges was also an All-Landmark Conference First Team selection in both singles and doubles, as was Ota. Rounding out the All-Landmark Conference selections for the Gophers was sophomore Michael Herman (Prague, Czech Republic ) who earned Second Team honors in singles.

The trio has led the Gophers to a banner 2017-18 season, as Goucher enters the NCAA Tournament this weekend with a 23-4 overall mark, the best record in a season in both program and conference history. In the regular season, the Gophers went unbeaten in the Landmark Conference (7-0), then bested Susquehanna (5-0) and Scranton (5-2) to take their third straight Landmark Conference Championship.

Hodges, as he has for his entire career at Goucher, had a banner 2017-18 season on his way to earning Landmark Player of the Year honors to join Joey Caracappa as the only players in program history to win the honor from the Landmark Conference.

Hodges was also named to the All-Landmark Conference team in both singles and doubles for the third time in his career, nabbing First Team honors in both in 2016 and Second Team accolades in each in 2015.

In 2017-18, Hodges went 19-8 in singles and 15-10 with Ota at number one doubles. Playing in the number two spot on the lineup for most of the year in singles, Hodges posted a 14-6 record there on the year and went a perfect 7-0 in singles action during the conference season.

Throughout the year, Hodges broke two Landmark Conference records: most career doubles victories (62) and most singles victories in conference play (26), as well.

Ota, meanwhile, went 18-6 in singles in his first year in the program. Going 16-5 in the top spot of the lineup for the Gophers, Ota ended the year winning eight of his last 10 singles matches, while earned Most Valuable Player honors for the Landmark Conference Championship last weekend.

Herman was a steady force for the Gophers in the middle of the lineup all season long to earn Landmark Conference Second Team accolades for the first time. Going 10-6 in the number three position, Herman was a perfect 5-0 in singles action in Landmark Conference play on the year.

To view the full All-Landmark Conference men's tennis teams for 2017-18, click here. 

The Goucher College men's tennis team opens play in the NCAA Tournament on Friday, as they travel to Williams College for a First Round match-up with Messiah. First serve from Williamstown, Mass. is set for 1:30 p.m.

--GOPHERS--