West Babylon, N.Y. - St. Thomas Aquinas freshman sensation, Marcel Volz (Iffezheim, Germany), has been named both the East Coast Conference Men's Tennis Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year in a vote by the conference's coaches.

In his debut season in Sparkill, Volz was the tops single player in the ECC. Volz went a perfect 5-0 in conference play, all at the No. 1 position. Overall, he has posted a 16-5 singles record with a 14-4 record in dual matches and a 2-1 mark at the ITA East Region Championship. Volz has also contributed in doubles play, finishing with a 9-8 record on the year.                                                                                                                                                                                                   

For the first time in his five-year career, St. Thomas Aquinas head coach, Matt Capell has been voted by his peers as the league's Coach of the Year. Capell has led the Spartans to a 13-5 record, including a 4-1 mark in ECC play to earn the No. 2 seed in the upcoming ECC Championship. Capell also has St. Thomas Aquinas on the cusp of their first-ever NCAA Championship selection, as the Spartans ranked No. 7 in the latest NCAA East Region rankings.

The ECC also announced its Men's Tennis All-Conference honorees on Thursday afternoon. Joining Volz on the First Team are NYIT's Nicolas Castaldo, Roberts Wesleyan's Guido Janssen, and Cosme Jubera, Kareem Rashad, and Richard Sec of Queens College.

Second Team selections include Boyd Blackburn (Roberts Wesleyan), Lucas Demuth (Queens), Sergio Fernandez (NYIT), Enej Hasicevic (St. Thomas Aquinas), Kostiantyn Kalchev (District of Columbia), Patrick O'Brien (Daemen), and Paul Voigt (St. Thomas Aquinas).

2019 ECC Men’s Tennis All-Conference
First Team
Nicolas Castaldo, Jr., NYIT
Guido Janssen, So., Roberts Wesleyan
Cosme Jubera, Sr., Queens
Kareem Rashad, Fr., Queens
Richard Sec, Sr., Queens
Marcel Volz, Fr., St. Thomas Aquinas