FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – In just his second year at Northern Arizona, head coach Ki Kroll has established a winning culture for the Northern Arizona men's tennis team and in 2015 it led them all the way to the Big Sky Championship match. An identity has been created for the men's tennis program and through the player's hard work and determination, NAU made it all the way to the championship match after pulling off two upsets in the quarterfinals and in the semifinals.

The Lumberjacks ended the regular season with an 11-13 record after a brutal non-conference schedule where NAU faced five ranked opponents. For just the second time in school history, the Lumberjacks defeated a nationally ranked opponent and it came on the road against No. 70 Nevada. It was a monumental win for Northern Arizona as the Lumberjacks defeated the Wolf Pack 5-2 for its first win over a ranked opponent since 2002.

On Feb. 18 NAU received its first Big Sky Player of the Week honor and it came from a freshman in Felix Schumann after just two weeks into his collegiate career. The native of Germany went a perfect 2-0 in NAU's two wins over Nevada and New Mexico State. Just a little over a month later Jordan Gobatie was named Big Sky Player of the Week after going 3-0 against Idaho, North Dakota and Eastern Washington.

The Lumberjacks started to pick up their play in the middle of March as NAU went on a five-match winning streak from March 17 through March 26 with an impressive 5-2 win over Big Sky's top-ranked Idaho at the time. The Lumberjacks came up clutch in the final week of the regular season needing one win in their final two matches in order to clinch a spot in the Big Sky Championship and NAU delivered two wins over Southern Utah and Portland State.

NAU went into the Big Sky Championships with a tough draw against the No. 3 seed and the defending Big Sky Champions, Montana. Last year the Lumberjacks' season ended in the semifinals at the hands of the Grizzlies so NAU returned the favor, sending the champs home with a 4-2 upset to advance to the semifinals. That led to the lowest seed in the tournament, NAU, going up against the No. 1 seed Weber State, who the Lumberjacks had lost to 4-3 in Flagstaff during the regular season. Once again, NAU got their revenge with a 4-1 victory over the regular season champions to advance to the Big Sky Championship. The Lumberjacks would face Idaho and the Lumberjacks battled for every point in every match but NAU came up just short as they feel to the Vandals 4-2.

The Lumberjacks proved to be competitive on every court this season as all six starters posted double-digit wins in singles and four of the six starters had winning records. Schumann led NAU this season with 13 victories primarily on court five. Kester Black, Jordan Gobatie and Alexandre Locci each had 12 wins this season and Eden Peleg and Adi Zilberstein posted 10 wins. Black was stellar throughout conference play posting a 9-1 record from courts two, three and four. Gobatie and Locci played on court one in doubles this season and they led the team with 10 wins including five wins in conference. Earning First Team All-Big Sky honors was Gobatie for the first time in his career. In his two season at NAU, Gobatie earned All-Conference honors in both seasons wearing the Blue and Gold.  

The Lumberjacks will say bye to their two seniors, Black and Gobatie, as the two combined for 24 victories in singles play this season. 

In his two years at NAU, Kroll has accumulated 24 victories overall and 14 wins in the Big Sky with two appearances in the Big Sky Championship. A culture has been established in the men's tennis program and under the leadership of Coach Kroll, the program is now at a championship level.