DENVER Rice junior Robert Searle has been named the Western Athletic Conference Mens Tennis Player of the Week. This is the first player of the week honor for Searle this spring.
Searle, a junior from Orpington, England, helped No. 31 Rice defeat No. 36 Alabama, 5-2. He defeated No. 31 Luigi DAgord 7-6(6), 7-6(2) to move to 3-0 in dual match play. He teamed with Ben Harknett to defeat DAgord and Sammy Stuyf 8-4, as the Owls won all three doubles matches to take the doubles point. Searle is now 3-0 at the number one ladder position. The Owls defeated No. 36 Alabama 5-2 to move to 2-1 on the dual match season.
OTHERS NOMINATED Boise States Matias Silva defeated Matt Baca of Cal Poly at No. 1, defeated Andrew Hogan of San Francisco at No. 2 and defeated Pacific's Jorgen Vestli at No. 2 Fresno States Jakub Cech defeated James Wan of Stanford in straight sets to continue his dominating start to the dual match season. Cech, a sophomore, cruised past Wan by scores of 6-3, 6-2 to improve to 5-0 in singles Nevadas Adam Jooste went 3-0 on the weekend picking up No. 1 wins over Eastern Washington, Lewis & Clark State and Gonzaga. Two of his opponents he downed in straight sets, taking his match against Ara Sarkissian of Lewis & Clark to three with two going to breakers.