DENVER ? This week, four of seven WAC schools are in action, with one school set to kick off their spring schedule for the first time. On Jan. 25 the No. 22-ranked Boise State Broncos will travel to Albuquerque, N.M., to take on the No. 54 New Mexico Lobos for the second time in six days, and then will head to College Station, Texas to compete with No. 25 Texas A&M on Jan. 27. The No. 69 Fresno State Bulldogs will make the trip to Norman, Okla., to meet the No. 34 Sooners of Oklahoma on Jan. 25, before heading to Fayetteville, Ark. to tango with the Hogs on Jan. 27. Nevada makes its 2008 spring debut in Berkeley, Calif., taking on the No. 39 Golden Bears of California on Jan. 26. Utah State will head to Salt Lake City to meet with in-state rival No. 67 Utah on Jan. 26. The Rainbow Warriors will have nearly three weeks off before returning to the nets Feb. 6 to take on Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif. The Vandals of Idaho take two weeks off before meeting WAC foe Nevada on Feb. 2 in Cheney, Wash. The Aggies of New Mexico State also take two weeks off before returning to action Feb. 1-3 in Las Vegas, Nev., when they take on Saint Mary’s, UNLV and Southern Mississippi.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK ? Dennis Lajola of Hawai’i has been named the Western Athletic Conference Tennis Player of the Week for the week of Jan. 14-20. This is the first career honor for Lajola, making his debut for the Rainbow Warriors.
Lajola, a freshman from Aiea, Hawaii, (Isabella Colleges), made his much anticipated debut for Hawai’i, starting his career at a perfect 2-0 in singles. Lajola defeated No. 68 Sam Chang of No. 18 Florida State (7-5, 6-3) at the No. 1 position on Jan. 18, before going on to beat Bijan Hejazi of UC Santa Barbara (7-6, 6-4) at the No. 2 position. In doubles, Lajola and teammate Jeff Fitch defeated Chang and Kykut of No. 18 Florida State (8-5) at the No. 1 doubles position.
Other nominees included: Andrey Potapkin of Idaho was a perfect 4-0 in singles, defeating Marcos Verdasco of Oregon (6-3, 6-2), Weber State’s Sascha Kiehne (6-0, 2-0, ret.), Kyle Erickson of Portland State (6-0, 6-1) and Portland’s Joel Kincaid (5-7, 7-5, 6-3) ... Jakob Asplund of Utah State helped the Aggies to a 1-1 start, as he defeated Montana State’s Kyle McDonald in straight sets (7-6, 6-1) at the No. 1 position, and paired up with teammate Jonas Tyden to defeat McDonald and Dybala of Montana State (8-1) at the No. 1 doubles position.
BOISE STATE OPENS 2008 IN PERFECT FASHION ? The No. 22 Boise State Broncos men’s tennis team opened the 2008 season in convincing fashion, as they made quick work in two dual matches on Jan. 17. The Broncos easily swept the Bobcats of Montana State, 7-0, while the Aggies of Utah State were able to steal one match away, giving the Broncos a 6-1 win.
The Broncos then improved to 3-0 on the season with a quick win over No. 70 UNLV in the first semifinal match of the Mountain Regional Playoffs on Jan. 19. Boise State topped the Rebels with a 4-0 score in the best-of-seven match. The Broncos were led by 19th-ranked Clancy Shields, who was the first to earn a win, topping UNLV’s Wes Burrows, 6-1, 6-2, at the No. 2 position. Senior Piotr Dilaj made quick work of Bryan Miller (6-2, 6-1) in the No. 4 position, followed by No. 47 Luke Shields' defeat of Elliot Wronski (6-1, 6-4). Earning the final point for the Boise State 4-0 win was senior No. 65 Eric Roberson, tallying a 6-1, 6-2, win over Matt Kunkel in the No. 5 singles match.
Boise State finished the weekend a perfect 4-0 after a thrilling 4-3 victory over No. 54 New Mexico in the Mountain Regional Playoff finals. The five-hour match came down to the final match of the night (No. 6 singles) to determine the winner. In a back-and-forth battle, the Lobos earned the doubles point by taking two of three doubles matches.
Singles play was much the same, teeter-tottering with wins for each squad. Boise State’s No. 47 Luke Shields was the first to earn a point for the Broncos, defeating No. 35 Max Jones in convincing style, 6-0, 6-2, in the No. 1 singles match. The Broncos were able to go up 3-2 after Brent Werbeck and Steve Robertson both earned wins. Werbeck topped Miles Bugby in a quick 6-2, 6-1, No. 5 singles match, while Robertson fought through a tiebreak at No. 3 singles to defeat Graeme Kassautski, 6-2, 7-6. With the team score set at 3-3, the two teams depended on their No. 6 singles players to hold up the pressure of the match. Battling for two hours, Boise State’s Piotr Dilaj won a point-by-point match over Kamil Pajkowski, 7-5, 7-6, to clinch the Broncos’ ticket to Seattle for the ITA National Team Indoor Championships in February.
FRESNO STATE WINS SEASON OPENER ? The Fresno State Bulldogs won the doubles point and took four of six singles matches to beat Cal Poly, 5-2, in the season opener in Fresno. No. 92 Rudolf Siwy, Mirko Zapletal, Fejesvi Veerepalli and Siddharth Alapati all earned singles wins, while Veerepalli and Zapletal and Taylor Leiby and Siwy earned doubles victories. This was the second-straight season opening win over Cal Poly for Fresno State, improving to 14-4 overall against the Mustangs.
HAWAI?I OUTLASTS SANTA BARBARA FOR FIRST WIN OF 2008 ? The Rainbow Warriors tapped out their first team victory of 2008 after defeating UC Santa Barbara, 4-3, on Jan. 20. After falling in all three doubles matches, Hawai?i bounced back, claiming four of six singles matches to guarantee the victory. Sophomore No. 25 Andreas Weber outlasted Philip Therp in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3, at the No. 1 court, while Dennis Lajola outplayed Bijan Hejazi in a hard-hitting match, 7-6, 6-4, at the No. 2 position. At the No. 3 court, junior Sascha Heinemann frustrated his opponent and beat Jack Hui in two sets, 6-1, 6-3. With the match score tied at three all, sophomore Spence Mendoza clinched the win for the Rainbow Warriors, attacking and volleying his way to victory over Anders Dalskov in an exciting finish, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4, at the No. 4 position.
IDAHO GOES 2-2 DURING TOUGH OPENING WEEKEND ? Returning to the courts for the first time this spring, the Idaho Vandals split their opening four dual matches, going 2-2 on the weekend. Idaho lost to Oregon 6-1, defeated Weber State 4-2 and Portland State 6-1, and wrapped up the weekend falling to Portland, 6-1.
The Vandals were led by freshman Andrey Potapkin, who started 2008 in decisive fashion by going a perfect 4-0 at No. 1 singles. Potapkin came out strong in Idaho’s first match, dropping the No. 1 Duck, Marcos Verdasco in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3. He again dropped opponents from both Weber State and Portland State in only two sets, defeating Sascha Kiehne of Weber State, 6-0, 2-0 (ret.) and Portland State’s Kyle Erickson, 6-0, 6-1. Potapkin finished off his perfect weekend at singles by taking down Portland’s Joel Kincaid, 5-7, 7-5, 6-3.
UTAH STATE EARNS FIRST WIN OF SPRING SEASON ? The Aggies defeated Montana State, 4-3, on Jan. 18, in Boise, Idaho, to earn their first win of 2008. Utah State was led by freshman Jakob Asplund, who was victorious at the No. 1 position in both singles and doubles, defeating Montana State’s Kyle McDonald, 7-6, 6-1, in singles, and teaming up with Jonas Tyden to defeat McDonald and Jakub Dybala, 8-1, in doubles.
WAC TOURNAMENT TO BE HELD IN LAS CRUCES ? This season, the Western Athletic Conference Tournament will be held in Las Cruces, New Mexico on the campus of New Mexico State, April 24-27. The 2007 champion, Boise State, will look to win its fourth-straight title. Last season, host Boise State took the title at the Appleton Tennis Center in Boise, defeating second-seeded Fresno State, 4-0.
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