WAC MEN?™S TENNIS NOTEBOOK
PLAYER OF THE MONTH?“ Boise State?™s Tatiana Ganzha and New Mexico State?™s Stjepan Beg have been named the Xbox Live Western Athletic Conference Tennis Players of the Month for the month of September. This is the first WAC Player of the Week honor for the junior. She is the second Rainbow Wahine to win the award with Victoria Prince getting the honor on Sept. 19.
Ganzha a freshman from Russia is undefeated this fall in both singles and doubles. She is 7-0 in singles so far this fall. In doubles, she is 7-0 with three different teammates. She has doubles wins with Jana Mackova, Alanah Carroll and Jen Wencel.
Beg, a junior from Rab, Croatia, played in the Aggies?™ only tournament so far this season, going 3-1 in singles play, advancing to the semifinals at the Aggie Invitational. In the semifinals, he fell to No. 3 NAIA ranked Ricardo Omana from College of Santa Fe. In doubles play, he finished 2-1 with wins over New Mexico and Northern Arizona and advanced to the semifinals.
Other women?™s tennis nominees: New Mexico State?™s Isabelle Mignot competed in two tournaments last month finishing undefeated in singles action with at perfect 7-0 record at the the UTEP Miner Fall Invitational and the Wyoming Cowgirl Invitational.
Click here for September Men's Tennis Release
WAC TOURNAMENT TO BE HELD IN FRESNO ?“ This season, the Western Athletic Conference Tournament will be held in Fresno, Calif. on the campus of Fresno State, April 20-23. The 2005 champion, Fresno State, will look to win its fourth-straight title at home. Last season, the Bulldogs took the title in Honolulu at Hawai'i.
STOLOFF ERA BEGINS AT NEVADA ?“ Chad Stoloff has taken over as the new head coach of the Nevada men?™s tennis team. Stoloff played for Nevada, graduating with honors in 2002 with a degree in political science.
Stoloff was a three-year letterwinner for the Wolf Pack from 1998-2002. He held the No. 1 ladder position in singles during his junior and senior years and kept his No. 1 position in doubles for his entire career at Nevada. He received conference all-academic honors every semester.
At the end of his senior season, Stoloff won the WAC?™S Stan Bates Award. Named for fomer WAC Comissioner Stan Bates, the $2,000 cash award is given to just one male and one female student-athlete among all league members for those going on to graduate school and is based on both academic and athletic performance.
The Carson City, Nev. native returns to Reno after a three-year stint as an assistant coach at the University of Hawai'i. During his tenure, Hawai'i had four players named WAC Player of the Week/Month and seven student-athletes win WAC All-Academic honors. In 2002-03, Stoloff was a volunteer assistant coach for the San Diego State men?™s tennis team.
SHIELDS WINS MATCH AT ALL-AMERICAN ?“ Sophomore Luke Shields won his first match at the Polo Ralph Lauren All-American Tennis Championships, Oct. 6.
Shields, an All-American in both singles and doubles competition last season, defeated Darrin Cohen of Virginia, 3-6, 7-5, 6-2. Cohen was ranked No. 45 by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. Shields, ranked No. 13 by the ITA, will next play a 2 p.m. match against No. 58 Adrians Zguns of Arkansas. Zguns defeated No. 102 Arvid Puraned of Virginia Tech 1-6, 6-3, 6-3, in his first match.
Shields and Thomas Schoeck, the No. 4 ranked doubles team, will begin their doubles play at 6:30 p.m., with a match against No. 40 Jonathan Stokke and Joey Atas of Duke.
FRESNO STATE CLASSIC ?“ The 2005 Fresno State men?™s tennis Bulldog Classic is complete. On the final day of competition, the Bulldogs played well. Junior Jakub Cech and sophomore Sam Tadevosian dominated in the final of the Flight B doubles competition, beating Jeremy Drean and Jason Nguyen 8-1. In the doubles consolation final of Flight A, Senior Sergiu Modoc and junior Charles Irie lost to Jonas Mouly and Oscar Plotnik of San Diego 8-6.
Tadevosian started the day by winning the final of the Flight B singles consolation with a 7-5, 6-0 victory. Tadevosian went 3-1 in the tournament. Cech, Modoc and Irie all went 1-1 in singles play. In doubles, the Cech/Tadevosian combination went 3-0, while Irie and Modoc were 2-2.
UCLA?™s Mathieu Dehaine beat teammate Jeremy Drean 6-4, 6-4, for the Flight A singles title. Tom Liversage of San Diego won the Flight B singles final, defeating Mike Ricks of Washington 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.