MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – The NESCAC Champion Wesleyan women's tennis team cleaned up in today's announcement of the league's awards, with the Cardinals earning two individual honors while six were named to the All-NESCAC teams. Highlighting the Cardinals' contingent is
Nika Vesely '25 who was named the NESCAC's Player of the Year while
Mike Fried earned NESCAC Coach of the Year honors for the second straight season and third time in his career.
Vesely becomes just the second Cardinal in program history to earn NESCAC Player of the Year honors, as she joins Eudice Chong '18 who was a three-time Player of the Year in the NESCAC (2015, 2017, 2018). Fried becomes the fourth coach to win NESCAC Coach of the Year in consecutive seasons while he remains the only coach in team history to win the award.
Comprising the All-NESCAC Teams are Vesely, who makes it onto the First Team nod in singles and Second Team in doubles.
Leila Epstein '26 joins Vesely on the First Team in singles.
Sarah Youngberg '26 gives the Cardinals three underclassmen to make the All-NESCAC lineup, as she is Second Team in singles. In doubles,
Kristina Yu '22 and
Sasha Gaeth '23 earn a spot on the Second Team, as does
Caitlyn Ferrante '23 who joins her doubles partner Vesely on the list.
Nika Vesely '25 | NESCAC Player of the Year | First Team Singles
Vesely has been a revelation this season, amassing a perfect 14-0 record in dual matches from the #1 position for Wesleyan. In her 14 appearances in dual matches, Vesely has dropped just two sets out of 30 played. She holds an active streak of 18 consecutive sets won, all of which coming from the #1 position in the singles lineup. Only adding to the allure is Vesely all but three of her appearances this season have come in matches against nationally ranked opponents, with one of the remaining three being against a Division I opponent in Quinnipiac that won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title last week. This is Vesely's first time making an All-NESCAC Team in her career.
Mike Fried | NESCAC Coach of the Year
Fried's transformation of the women's tennis program at Wesleyan is truly remarkable. Prior to his arrival in the spring of 2012, Wesleyan had achieved a winning record in NESCAC play just once. The Cardinals have since gone on post eight straight winning seasons in the most-challenging conference in the nation.
The prominence has only expanded in recent seasons as Wesleyan won the NCAA Championship – becoming the first Wesleyan female team sport to win a national title – in 2019 while the program made it back to the national title match in 2021 and advanced to the national semifinal round last season. Since the start of 2019, the Cardinals have won four consecutive NESCAC Championships, sport a 70-5 overall record and are 31-2 in NESCAC regular season play.
Wesleyan's 2022-23 season is another belter, as the team has been ranked Top 5 nationally all season and completed another run to a NESCAC title. His Cardinals are the first program in school history to win the NESCAC Championship four straight seasons. The only loss the team has suffered came in a 5-4 defeat at Middlebury in a match that came down to a third set tiebreak in the deciding singles match. Wesleyan has faced 14 nationally ranked opponents in 18 matches this dual match season and sport a 13-1 record in those matches. The Cardinals even defeated an NCAA Div. I team (Quinnipiac) by a 5-2 decision in mid-March.
Earning a spot on the All-NESCAC First Team in singles, the only freshman to make the list, is Epstein who heads into the NCAA Tournament with a 12-1 singles record in dual matches. She is 3-0 from the #1 position and 9-1 at #2 in her 13 appearances. Epstein has shown great resolve all season, sporting a perfect 5-0 record in three-set singles matches this spring. She is the fifth Cardinal freshman in team history to make the All-NESCAC First Team in singles.
Making an immediate impact in her first season as a Cardinal, Youngberg earned a spot on the All-NESCAC Second Team after compiling a 12-1 record in dual matches this spring. She has been used in the #3 (2-0), #4 (6-0) and #5 (4-1) positions and has lost just six sets across her 13 dual match appearances. Youngberg has won 11 of her 13 matches in straight sets. Perhaps most impressive, in 33 total sets played, Youngberg has allowed her opponent to win three or fewer games in 23 of those sets.
Kristina Yu '22 and
Sasha Gaeth '23 | Second Team Doubles
The Cardinals' #1 doubles team this season – Yu and Gaeth – make their way onto the All-NESCAC Second Team. For Yu, this is her third career All-NESCAC honor as she made it onto the First Team in singles and doubles as a freshman in 2018-19. Gaeth earns her second career honor, having made the All-NESCAC First Team in doubles last season. As a team, Yu and Gaeth are 10-4 in dual matches from the #1 spot in the lineup this spring. In their career as a tandem, they sport a 22-7 record when playing together.
Dynamic from the #2 spot in the lineup, Vesely and Ferrante have teamed up and are 11-1 this season. The tandem went 7-0 during regular season NESCAC play and only recently suffered their first loss, an 8-7 (7-4) defeat to Amherst in the semifinal round of the NESCAC Tournament. Vesely and Ferrante dominated several notable opponents including Quinnipiac (6-2 win), Middlebury twice (8-6 regular season, 8-1 NESCAC title match), Bowdoin (8-7 (7-1)), Amherst (8-5), and Tufts (8-4).
The Cardinals are set for their seventh consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and will open with regional play at home for just the second time in team history. Wesleyan will face the winner of the Pitt.-Greensburg vs. Allegheny match in the second round on Saturday at 10 AM from the John Wood Memorial Tennis Courts. The Cardinals are 5-0 at home this season and sport a stream of 31 consecutive home wins dating back to 2018.
