Maximilian Scholl Ranked In Final ITA Singles Poll of 2019 Season
May 29, 2019 | Men's Tennis
BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. – For the first time in its history, Gardner-Webb men's tennis has a had a player ranked in the final Intercollegiate Tennis Association's singles rankings as Maximilian Scholl ended the season ranked 125th.
This also marks the first time that Gardner-Webb has had two players ranked in the ITA singles poll in a year. During the 2019 campaign, Millen Hurrion was ranked as high as 80th. In the doubles poll, he and Scholl were ranked 26th at one point.
Scholl (Stuttgart, Germany / School Korntal-Munchingen) capped off his stellar career in Boiling Springs with First-Team All-Big South singles and doubles honors from the league office. He finished second in the Big South Player of the Year voting with 19 points and three first-place votes.
"I'm so proud of Max and what he accomplished this year," said head coach Mike Griffith. "To have the record he did and be in the national rankings shows the effort he put into the season. He finished his career on such a high note as an individual and by also helping the team win the regular season championship. I have no doubt he will be successful in the next phase of his life."
Scholl went 18-1 in the spring with his only defeat coming to Petros Chrysochos of Wake Forest, who finished the year ranked 10th. After a season-opening defeat to Chrysochos, who was ranked #1 in the country at the time, Scholl reeled off an impressive 18 consecutive victories to end his final season with the Runnin' Bulldogs. The Stuttgart, Germany native led Gardner-Webb to its first Big South Conference regular season championship.
Scholl went a perfect 8-0 in conference action in both regular season and Big South tournament play and 10-1 in non-conference matches. Only one of his Big South victories took a full three sets.
In the fall, he made a run to the Elite Eight at the ITA regionals thanks to wins over a pair of players from Atlantic Coast Conference schools – Clemson's Carlos Kelaidis and NC State's Julian Ziobinksy – as well as College of Charleston's Benedikt Henning.
Scholl and teammate Millen Hurrion also won the Farnsworth Invitational on the campus of Princeton University in the fall. With the format set like the Davis Cup, the duo played pairings from Drexel, William & Mary, Temple and Princeton with a doubles match and two singles matches taking place. The winner of two of the three matches advanced to the next round. Scholl and Hurrion met a duo from Princeton in the championship and won the doubles match before Scholl clinched the championship with his singles victory over Jimmy Wasserman.
Scholl graduated in May with a degree in international business and will play tennis in Germany this summer with hopes of entering professional tournaments. In August, he will report to Princeton University where he will spend the 2019-20 working as an assistant with the Tigers' women's tennis team.
