ATHLETE OF THE WEEK - Rices Richard Barker has been named the Western Athletic Conference mens tennis Player of the Week.
Barker, a senior from Solihul, England, swept both of his singles matches and dominated his doubles opponents to help Rice to upset victories at No. 3 Stanford and No. 11 California. He scored a 6-2, 6-3, victory against the Bears' Daniel Sebescen in Rice's 4-2 win late Feb. 13. Saturday, he teamed with brother William Barker to blast Stanford's No. 10 tandem of KC Corkery and James Pade 8-1 to help secure the doubles point. Barker then beat Phil Sheng 6-1, 6-3, to put the Owls up 3-1 against the Cardinal. The team went on to win 4-3.
OTHERS NOMINATED Thomas Schoeck, Boise State and Alex Skrypko, SMU.
NOTES FROM AROUND THE LEAGUE
Boise State - The Boise State Broncos take their 5-3 overall record and their 33rd national ranking on the road to compete at Utah on Thursday, Feb. 19 and at 61st ranked BYU on Friday, Feb. 20. There are a few Broncos ranked by the ITA. In singles, senior Guillaume Bouvier is ranked 41st, junior Matias Silva is ranked 66th and sophomore Thomas Schoeck is ranked 87th. Bouvier and Schoeck, as a doubles team, are ranked 42nd.
Fresno State - Alex Krohn's three-set win at No. 2 singles lifted 41st-ranked Fresno State to a 4-3 victory over Santa Clara at the SCU Tennis Center. Krohn defeated Taylor Bedillion 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 with the Bulldogs (4-4) ahead 3-2 in the match. The senior improved to 4-2 in dual matches, including a solid 4-1 record at No. 2. Next up for Fresno State is a home match against No. 10 Washington on Friday at 2 p.m. at the Wathen Tennis Center.
Hawaii - The Rainbow Warriors (2-9) were originally scheduled to make their season debut at the new Central Oahu Tennis Complex, but due to a scheduling mix-up, the match was moved to the Manoa campus, where the courts are due to undergo major reconstruction. The Warriors will now take a month of from competition.
Nevada - Nevada won just one of its three matches at the UNLV Spring Invitational held at the Fertitta Tennis Complex, Feb. 13-15. Nevada defeated Weber State, 6-1, for the second time this year, but opend with a 7-0 loss to UNLV and finished with a 4-2 loss to Utah State on, the second loss to that team this year. The Wolf Pack will have two more matches on the road this week when it goes to UC Davis on Feb. 28 and Sacramento State on Feb. 29. The Pack split with Sac State last year, losing away 7-0 and beating the Hornets in Reno 5-2.
Rice - After a late start due to inclement weather, the 23rd-ranked Rice men upset 11th-ranked California 4-2 in their first road trip of the season. The Owls jumped out to a 3-1 lead with straight-set wins at the two, three and four positions. William Barker scored the first point of the day for Rice with a 6-3, 6-3 victory against Wayne Wong at number two. The Owls followed up the win with another upset on a heroic third set from freshman Ben Harknett. Rice stunned third-ranked Stanford with a 4-3 dual-match victory, handing the Cardinal a rare home loss in Palo Alto, Calif. Next up for the Owls is 36th-ranked Florida State at the Jake Hess Tennis Stadium.
SMU - SMU dropped a highly competitive doubles point early to No. 20 Texas and couldn't recover, as the Longhorns went on to defeat the Mustangs, 6-1 at the Penick-Allison Tennis Center in Austin, Texas. Texas won all three doubles matches for the early 1-0 lead, but SMU was close in two of the matches, falling 9-8 at the No. 1 slot and dropping a 8-5 doubles match at the No. 3 position. With the loss, SMU falls to 2-3 on the year and now hits the road for a match against Illinois-Chicago on Feb. 20 at 6:00 p.m.
Tulsa - Tulsa will play host to the Bradley Braves on Saturday, February 21st, in the Michael D. Case Tennis Center. The match is set to begin a 9:00 a.m. A pair of seniors, 57th-ranked Alejandro Tejerina and 94th-ranked Dustin Taylor, will lead the Golden Hurricane (6-5), which owns a 6-0 mark against unranked opponents this season. The Braves (3-1) dropped a 7-0 decision to their only ranked opponent this season, 62nd-ranked Ball State, but posted a 7-0 win over Western Illinois, a 6-1 decision over Illinois-Chicago and a 5-2 mark against Valparaiso.
ITA RANKINGS - Rice is the highest ranked WAC team in the most recent ITA rankings. The Owls are ranked No. 23. Boise State is ranked No. 33, while Fresno State slips two spots to No. 39. Rounding out the top 50 is SMU at No. 40 and Tulsa at No. 49. The Rice twin duo of juniors Richard and William Barker are currently ranked No. 3 after starting the season ranked No. 1.
NATIONAL TEAM INDOORS - Tulsa and Boise State played at the ITA/USTA National Team Indoor Championship in Seattle, Wash. This was Tulsas first trip to the national indoor tournament. Both schools went 0-3 at the prestigious tournament. Defending NCAA Champion, Illinois, repeated as ITA/USTA National Team Indoor Champions. Tulsa lost to Illinois in the first round, 4-0.
WAC TOURNAMENT TO BE HELD IN HOUSTON - This season, the Western Athletic Conference Tournament will be held in Houston, Texas at Jake Hess Tennis Stadium on the campus of Rice University, April 30-May 2. The 2003 champion, Boise State, will look to defend its title.