As you've likely heard, we don't have any live-action contests to cover at LetsGoPeay.com right now. What we do have is free time; oodles and oodles of free time. Enough free time to swap oodles of emails with various people who would know to create a snapshot of the best athletes in Austin Peay men's tennis history. As we roll down the home stretch, let's kick it back to one of the pioneers of Governors tennis.

One of the greatest tennis players not just in Austin Peay history, but Ohio Valley Conference history, Noel Phillips made his way to Clarksville by way of Sydney, Australia. During his four-year career in Clarksville, Phillips was simply dominant, racking up 75 singles wins and leading the Governors to the 1974 OVC Championship in his senior campaign.  

Playing as the Govs No. 1 in singles during 1973, Phillips posted a stellar 20-3 record, as he rolled to his first OVC Singles Championship and the OVC Player of the Year Award. That same year, Phillips teamed up with Jorge Jimenez to upset the top-seeded Murray State duo of Pekka Pettersen and Mikko Horsma (6-3, 4-6, 6-2), to claim the OVC Doubles Championship for the first team in program history.

A year later, Phillips posted a 25-6 mark in singles play during his senior season and defended his OVC Singles Championship by handily dispatching Middle Tennessee's Lasse Burchman (6-1, 6-3) in the finals. This led to Phillips picking up his second-straight OVC Player of the Year award, at the time making him the third in OVC history to win it in back-to-back seasons. 

While Phillips made his mark at Austin Peay on the tennis courts, he also played golf and ran cross country during his time as a Governor. Phillips finished his career as a Gov by taking home the 1974 Joy Award, now known as the Legends Award, which is given to Austin Peay's most valuable senior student-athlete.

However, Phillips tennis career did not end at Austin Peay, as he would go on to play professionally where he was once ranked as one of the top 100 tennis players in the world. Almost more impressively, Phillips was once ranked as one of Australia's top 15 players, during a time when Australians dominated the world tennis rankings.