After coming over from Israel last season, NIU men’s tennis freshmen Dor Amir was redshirted, which kept him from competing.

This season, though, Amir is competing with the top players on the team and in the nation. Amir’s success helped him found his way to the No. 8 spot in the Northern Star’s Top 10 NIU Athletes of 2011-12.

“It feels great to be ranked in the Top 10,” Amir said. “Tennis is not a very recognizable sport at NIU, especially when the football team is so popular. It feels nice to be recognized, and hopefully more people will pay attention to tennis now.”

Amir is 22-5 in single matches, and was never worse than the fourth seed on for the Huskies. As NIU’s seconded seeded player, Amir finished the regular season with a 12-0 record. In doubles play, Amir was partnered with Axel Lagerlof and the two played their way to 19-8 record.

Amir was selected as the MAC Men’s Tennis Player of the Week during the week of March 15.

The redshirt freshman helped lead the Huskies to a share of the MAC Regular Season Championship, which was the first ever in program’s history in the conference.