DENVER ? Fresno State’s Anastasia Petukhova and Boise State’s Clancy Shields and have been named the Western Athletic Conference Tennis Players of the Month for November. This is the second Player of the Month honor for Petukhova and the first for Shields this Fall season.
Petukhova, a sophomore from Moscow, Russia (A.M. Gorky), performed brilliantly during the Duals in the Desert in Palm Springs, Calif., Nov. 2-4, going 2-0 in both singles and doubles. Petukhova beat No. 19 Vanja Corovic of Texas in straight sets (6-2, 7-5) and then topped Baylor’s Jana Bielikova in three sets (6-1, 3-6, 6-3). In doubles, Petukhova and teammate Renata Kucerkova beat Baylor’s Bielikova and Filipiak before advancing to top Davison and Larsson of Texas, both by the score of 8-4.
Shields, a junior from Grand Junction, Colo., (Grand Junction), qualified for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s Indoor Tennis Championships in Columbus, Ohio, on Nov. 1-4 after finishing as a Wilson/ITA Mountain Region finalist. Shields topped the No. 8 ranked Andre Begemann of Pepperdine in a convincing 6-2, 6-4 first-round match to advance in the main singles draw. In the second round of 16 the No. 38 ranked Shields faced No. 19 rated Daniel Vallverdu of Miami, dropping a well-fought 7-6 (4), 6-4 match.
Other women’s tennis nominees included: Stacey Housley of Boise State advanced to the Flight 2 singles championship at the Husky Invitational in Seattle, Wash., before falling to Washington’s Aleksandra Malovic, 6-4, 6-3. En route to her consolation second-place finish, Housley defeated Portland State’s Dalkin (6-0, 6-1) and Tanzer (6-1, 6-0) and Washington’s Wong (3-6, 6-4, 6-1).
Other men’s tennis nominees included: Siddharth Alapati of Fresno State won his second singles title of the Fall season after claiming the Flight 2 singles draw of the UNLV Rebel Classic in Las Vegas, Nev., defeating Conor Smith of Arkansas in the semi-finals before topping Fresno Pacific’s Marco Foelz in straight sets in the final .... Andreas Weber of Hawai’i defeated No. 36 Matt Bruch of Pac-10 powerhouse Stanford (3-6, 6-4, 6-3) in Wailea, Maui ... Gustave Diep of New Mexico State went 4-0 in November en route to winning the singles championship at the ASU Thunderbird Invitational, defeating two opponents from Arizona State and Arkansas’ Christopher Nott in a three set thriller before topping Middle Tennessee State’s John Peers, 6-4, 6-2 to capture the title.
-WAC-