PRINCETON, NJ (Apr. 23, 2026) – The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) has announced the 2026 Men’s Tennis Major Award winners and All-MAAC Teams, voted on by the league’s nine head coaches.
Cole Thurgur from Rider University was named as the 2026 MAAC Player of the Year. A sophomore from Ontario, Canada, Thurgur was one of three players to be chosen to the All-MAAC First Team at the singles position and All-MAAC First Team at the doubles position, while he and his Broncs teammate, Matteus Froberg Dahlin, were the only unanimous selections as an All-MAAC Doubles unit. He went 16-1 overall this season in singles, going undefeated in head to head action, with his only lost occurring at ITAs. Thurgur was 7-0 in MAAC singles play, posting a 2-0 mark at #1 singles. In non-conference action, he scored wins over schools like Monmouth, Florida Southern, Lehigh, Villanova, Fordham, Morgan State, and Norfolk State. In doubles matches, Thurgur went 16-5 overall, which included a 6-1 record at #1 doubles in conference action. Thurgur becomes a two-time all-conference selection in as many years after being named to the All-MAAC Second Team as a freshman last year. Additionally, he was named MAAC Player of the Week once this season, earning the honor on April 8.
Sacred Heart University’s Tomasz Garbacz was chosen as the 2026 MAAC Rookie of the Year. Garbacz was a member of the All-MAAC Second Team Singles and one of just four rookies in total to be named to one of the three all-conference teams at the singles position. He played first singles and doubles for the Pioneers as a freshman for the entire spring season. Garbacz posted an overall singles record of 10-12 and a MAAC record of 5-3 on the year. His wins included victories at first singles against the Mount, Merrimack, Siena, Niagara and Rider. Garbacz also posted nine wins during the year in doubles, including an 8-9 dual match record with Fred McRae at #1 doubles.
The 2026 MAAC Coach of the Year was Nate Horner of Marist University. In just his second season as the Director of Tennis for the Red Foxes, Horner completely turned the Marist program around, leading the team to a perfect 8-0 MAAC record and 14-5 overall mark after finishing in last place during the 2025 season (1-7 MAAC, 5-14 overall). The unbeaten conference season led to the 2026 MAAC Men’s Tennis Regular Season championship, the first for the program in a decade, last winning a regular season title in 2016. This marked the 10
th time in program history Marist has gone perfect in league play dating back to 2002, and the 14 overall wins for the Red Foxes were the most in a season since the 2017 team posted a 17 win campaign. Moreover, Marist was unbeaten at home this season (6-0), posted the highest winning percentage in the MAAC (.737), and the team is riding an eight-match winning streak heading into the postseason.
The full list of major awards winners and All-MAAC Teams are below.
| 2026 Men’s Tennis Major Awards |
| Awards |
Player |
School |
| Player of the Year |
Cole Thurgur |
Rider |
| Rookie of the Year |
Tomasz Garbacz |
Sacred Heart |
| Coach of the Year |
Nate Horner |
Marist |
| All-MAAC First Team |
| Player |
Class |
Position |
School |
| Diego Alcala |
Fr. |
Singles |
Fairfield |
| Kostas Kollias |
Sr. |
Singles |
Fairfield |
| Jose Catala |
Gr. |
Singles |
Marist |
| Carlos Braun-Simo |
Jr. |
Singles |
Quinnipiac |
| Matteus Froberg Dahlin |
So. |
Singles |
Rider |
| Cole Thurgur |
So. |
Singles |
Rider |
| Kostas Kollias/Kacper Krolikowski |
Sr./So. |
Doubles |
Fairfield |
| Nick Suhanitski/Thomas Bevan |
Sr./Jr. |
Doubles |
Marist |
| Matteus Froberg Dahlin/Cole Thurgur* |
So./So. |
Doubles |
Rider |
| All-MAAC Second Team |
| Player |
Class |
Position |
School |
| Kacper Krolikowski |
So. |
Singles |
Fairfield |
| Alejandro Abella |
Fr. |
Singles |
Marist |
| Anirudh Nallaparaju |
So. |
Singles |
Marist |
| Stefanos Pournaropoulos |
Fr. |
Singles |
Mount St. Mary's |
| Nathan Slattery |
Sr. |
Singles |
Rider |
| Tomasz Garbacz |
Fr. |
Singles |
Sacred Heart |
| Alex Aguiar/Calum Jessett |
Sr./Jr. |
Doubles |
Fairfield |
| Carlos Braun-Simo/Alessandro Sciacca |
Jr./FY. |
Doubles |
Quinnipiac |
| Csanad Nyaradi/Vishal Prakash |
Sr./So. |
Doubles |
Quinnipiac |
| All-MAAC Third Team |
| Player |
Class |
Position |
School |
| Calum Jessett |
Jr. |
Singles |
Fairfield |
| Ian Layton |
So. |
Singles |
Marist |
| Alexi Roy |
So. |
Singles |
Mount St. Mary's |
| Elias Hoxha |
So. |
Singles |
Quinnipiac |
| Frederick McRae |
Sr. |
Singles |
Sacred Heart |
| Bruno Loch Varella |
So. |
Singles |
Siena |
| Bjorn Hedegaard-Friis/Trey Pleasant |
Fr./Fr. |
Doubles |
Merrimack |
| Stefanos Pournaropoulos/Nikos Makris |
Fr./Fr. |
Doubles |
Mount St. Mary's |
| Heath Paul Waters/Ibragim Turgambekov |
Fr./Jr. |
Doubles |
Rider |
*Denote Unanimous Selection
The 2026 MAAC Men's & Women's Tennis Championships are a four-team, single-elimination championships taking place on April 24-26 at Princeton University Racquet and Fieldhouse in Princeton, NJ. For all information regarding the 2026 MAAC Men's & Women’s Tennis Championships, please visit
maacsports.com/tennis.
About the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference:
With 13 institutions strongly bound by the sound principles of quality and integrity in academics and excellence in athletics, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) is in its 45th year of competition during the 2025-26 academic year. Current conference members include: Canisius University, Fairfield University, Iona University, Manhattan University, Marist University, Merrimack College, Mount St. Mary’s University, Niagara University, Quinnipiac University, Rider University, Sacred Heart University, Saint Peter’s University, and Siena University.
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