United Athletic Conference

Related Material

Weekly Release

WAC WOMENS TENNIS NOTEBOOK

PLAYER OF THE WEEK Rice's Blair DiSesa has been named the Western Athletic Conference Women's Tennis Player of the Week for the week of Jan. 31. This is her first honor of the spring.

DiSesa, a junior from Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., helped No. 53 Rice upset No. 23 LSU, 4-3, and improve to a perfect 4-0 on the dual match season. After the Owls tied the match at three all, DiSesa clinched the upset with a 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 defeat of Amanda Mang. DiSesa is now a perfect 4-0 at the number one ladder position.

OTHERS NOMINATED - Louisiana Tech's Monica Kelly remained undefeated on the season as she won both her singles and doubles matches for Louisiana Tech in a win over Delta State SMU's Lynsie Jones won both of her singles matches in the No. 3 position last week. Against Texas State on Thursday she posted a 6-0, 6-2 win against Jana Cucciniello and followed that up with a 6-1, 7-6 win over Barbara Mooney of UTSA on Friday UTEP's Tea Spirta went 1-0 in singles and 1-0 in doubles as UTEP won its first match of the season, 6-1 over Air Force. She teamed with Danielle King at No. 3 doubles to win 8-3. The duo improved to 9-5 overall and 2-1 in dual matches. Her 6-2, 6-0 singles win at No. 2 was her eighth this season. Tulsa's Carla Zabeleta is still perfect on the dual season with a 5-0 record. She has played at the number 1-4 spots on the roster. This past weekend she gave TU one of its singles points against Arkansas, in the No. 4 spot.

ITA RANKINGS Frensno State, the three-time defending conference champions, were the highest ranked WAC school in the latest ITA rankings with a No. 22 ranking. They were followed by Rice (38th), SMU (47th) and Tulsa (54th).

WAC TOURNAMENT TO BE HELD IN HONOLULU This season, the Western Athletic Conference Tournament will be held in Honolulu, Hawaii on the campus of the University of Hawaii, April 21-24. The 2004 champion, Fresno State, will look to win its third-straight title.

NOTES FROM AROUND THE LEAGUE
Boise State will play three matches this weekend in Salt Lake City. The Broncos will play Utah, UTEP and Nevada. These are the Broncos first matches against WAC schools, facing UTEP and Nevada. The Bronco women are led by three seniors - Alissa Ayling, Anna Curtolo and Carolina Pongratz. Ayling and Curtolo have been been with the Broncos since the fall of 2001 as freshmen. Pongratz following the following year as a sophomore, transfering from Florida Gulf Coast University.

Fresno State was 22nd in the latest edition of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's rankings. After starting the dual match season at No. 21, the women's team has now been ranked 22nd in consecutive rankings periods. Fresno State (1-0) has not played a match since defeating Santa Clara 6-1 in the opener on Jan. 22. Fresno State hits the road this week for two matches in Southern California. The 22ndranked Bulldogs (1-0) hit the road Saturday to begin a two-match trip that starts with a contest at 66th-ranked UC Irvine at 1:30 p.m. Following that will be a contest against fourth-ranked UCLA on Feb. 12 at noon. The stretch begins a road-heavy schedule for the next month for Fresno State, which has not played a match since the opener
on Jan. 22.

Hawaii fought through its early season struggles to capture a decisive 6-1 victory over IPFW. The Rainbow Wahine broke a three-match losing streak and improved their season mark to 1-3. Hawaii dominated in singles competition, with Sylvia Jaros and Paige Mainor capturing matching 6-0, 6-0 wins over IPFW's Hanna Hager and Jill Carie, respectively. Hawaii's Kana Aikawa also captured her first singles win of the season, taking the team point at No. 6 with a 6-1, 6-1 decision over Jessica Vervynckt.

Louisiana Tech moved its record to 2-0 as the Techsters took a 7-0 home win over Delta State. Tech didn't give up a set in the contest with the closest play coming in doubles action, where Monica Kelly and Avril Martinez teamed for a 9-7 win over Mindy Salas and Paula Uchida and Holly Ready and Saharai Uriarte combined for a 8-4 No. 2 win over Natalie Dean and Helene Thalamy.

Nevada lost to Pacific, 7-0 on Feb. 6 stretching the Wolf Packs losing to two matches. This week, the Wold Pack traves to Salt Lake City for a trio of dual matches. Nevada will take on host Utah on Feb. 11. The Wolf Pack will then face its first WAC opponents of the season spring against UTEP on Feb. 12 and Boise State on Feb.13.

Rice improved to 4-0 on the dual match season with a 4-3 upset of No. 23 LSU. Despite losing the doubles point to the Tigers, Rices Tracie Chong and Dominique Karas came from 7-1 down to defeat Amanda Mang and Staten Spencer 9-8 (7-4)... The pair is now a perfect 3-0 on the season. Two of Rices four defeats this dual match season have been against higher-ranked opponents.

San Jose State lost its second-straight match with a loss to Pacific. Pacific lost one only set in the nine matches played as the Tigers shut out San Jose State, 7-0, in a non-conference match. San Jose States Kathy Van was the only Spartan to win a set in her loss to Katharina Trumpf, 4-6, 6-1, (10-6).

No. 47 SMU posted its second-straight 7-0 victory in as many days on Friday, as they defeated UTSA at Haggar Tennis Stadium. The No. 2 doubles pairing of Jen Chay and Jenny Langer had the first Mustang win of the day, 8-1, and also clinched the doubles point at the same time. UTSA did not play doubles flight No. 3, allowing SMU to need only one doubles victory for the point.

UTEP returns to action next weekend when it travels to Salt Lake City, Utah, for matches against WAC foes Boise State and Nevada and host Utah. These are the first matches this spring against WAC opponents. This spring, the Miners are struggling in singles. UTEP has won only five singles matches in three dual matches. Samantha Attard is the only Miner undefeated at 1-0 at the No. 6 spot

Tulsa dropped a heartbreaker to No. 65 Arkansas, 4-3, to fall to 3-1 on the season. It came down to the No. 3 singles match, in which Delport lost in the tiebreak in the third set. Tulsa got back to its winning ways as it swept SMS, 7-0. TU is now 4-1 in duel competition. The Golden Hurricanes leader this spring is Daniele Muscolino who is 3-0 at the No. 1 spot in dual match action. Muscolino and Carla Zabaleta are 2-1 and the top spot in doubles.