Future Brightens for Men’s Tennis

With top recruits on the way, head coach Christophe Noblet is excited but cautious about next season.

For the third time in the past four years Stetson men’s tennis has produced a Top 25 recruiting class, according to rankings released earlier this week by TennisRecruiting.net.

The Hatters’ two-man recruiting class of Alexandre Hillhouse (Toulouse, France) and Sven Thiergard (Dusseldorf, Germany) ranks No. 24 among “mid-major” universities nationwide. The rankings do not include the addition of recent Kentucky transfer Fabian Penzkofer (Tutzing, Germany).

“It is always nice to be recognized, and we are certainly excited about next season,” said Stetson head coach Christophe Noblet, who arrived at Stetson in July 2015. “But this does not guarantee us anything, and we will need to work extremely hard in the fall if we want to be successful next spring.”

Hillhouse is a six-time regional champion and a former French doubles champion.

Thiergard led his high school team to the finals of the National Schoolsport Tennis Championship in Germany. As a singles player, he has been ranked a high of No. 124 in Europe and No. 876 worldwide by the International Tennis Federation.

Pepperdine topped the recruiting rankings for mid-majors, followed by SMU, Gonzaga, Fresno State and Louisiana-Lafayette. Liberty (13) is the only other ASUN Conference program ranked in the Top 25.

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