Elon’s Fortmann Wins Second SoCon Men’s Tennis Player of the Month Award

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Stefan Fortmann of the Elon University men’s tennis team was awarded his second consecutive Southern Conference Player of the Month award today, May 6, as announced by the league office.

Fortmann earned the award for the month of March, only to follow it up with the award for April. The junior from Wartburg, South Africa, became just the second player in program history to earn the honor twice in one season and became the first player in program history to win it in back-to-back months. Former standout Damon Gooch, also a native of South Africa, won the award in February and April of 2007.

The honor marks the third time Fortmann has won the award in his career at Elon, also tying Gooch for the program record.

Fortmann’s selection was made easy with the junior going 14-0 throughout the month of April, including 7-0 in singles action on the way to a SoCon Tournament championship. Overall, Fortmann has not lost a singles match since February 28 against Brown.

All seven of Fortmann’s singles wins came at No. 2 singles while five of the victories came in straight sets.

Two of Fortmann’s wins came in the SoCon Tournament, where he defeated Oliver Casey of Appalachian State in the semifinals, then clinched the SoCon title for Elon with a three-set win against Furman’s Matt Browne.

Playing with Juan Madrid at No. 3 doubles, the duo went 7-0 throughout the month of April. Though needing a tiebreaker against Furman’s duo of Ben Horst and Alex Christ on April 5, the pair didn’t allow more than four points in any of their last four matches, three of which came in the SoCon Tournament.

Fortmann will carry a 15-match winning streak into Elon’s second trip to the NCAA Tournament in program history this weekend when he and the Phoenix face the No. 2 seed in the Durham pod, the Tennessee Volunteers. The match is set for 9 a.m. on Saturday, May 10, in Durham, N.C., with the winner playing the winner of No. 1 Duke/No. 4 Winthrop on Sunday afternoon. Duke and Winthrop will play each other following the Elon/Tennessee match.