BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Colgate men's tennis junior Josh Israel was one of six Patriot League student-athletes voted to the conference's Academic All-League squad. The molecular biology major held a team-best 11-9 doubles record to go along with a 7-14 mark on singles courts one and two. 

"This is a very earned and well-deserved honor for Josh," head coach Bobby Pennington said. "He has a great GPA in a tough major and scored a nearly perfect score on the MCAT. Tennis-wise, he went from not being in the lineup as a sophomore to playing first doubles and second singles while being quite competitive in those spots. Josh also served as a junior captain this season. He's a highly unusual, focused, driven young man who is destined for big things." 

In Patriot League play, Israel held a 3-4 record in the second singles slot, and he went an even 3-3 in first doubles action. He opened the Spring season with a perfect 4-0 record on doubles court one, one of the team captain's four winning streaks of the year. 

Israel ended six duels undefeated across singles and doubles competition, two of which came against league opponents in Holy Cross and Loyola. 

Off the courts, the Madison, Conn., native minors in Jewish Studies and has landed on the Patriot League Honors Rolls in 2022 and 2023. Israel was also named a Golden Fellow, a prestigious fellowship that supports top pre-med and pre-law students at Colgate University. 

He was honored with the University's Edwin Foster Kingsbury Award for Excellence in Chemistry and spent last summer as an Undergraduate Research Assistant in the Interventional Oncology Lab of Dr. Julius Chapiro at the Yale University School of Medicine. 

Israel also tested in the 100th percentile for the MCAT scoring over 500, and he will be working full-time this summer as a Patient Assistant at Connecticut Hospice.