PLAYER OF THE WEEK - Fresno State’s Melanie Gloria has been named the Western Athletic Conference Tennis Player of the Week for the week of Feb. 11-17. This is the fourth career Player of the Week honor for Gloria, earning the award twice as a freshman and once as a sophomore.
Gloria, a junior from Montreal, Canada, (Georges-Vanier), was perfect in both singles and doubles against No. 8 UCLA and No. 37 UC Irvine, Feb. 15-16. The No. 1 nationally-ranked pair of Gloria and teammate Tinesta Rowe won both of their doubles matches, convincingly defeating Anna-Viktoria Linda and Riza Zalameda of No. 8 UCLA, 8-3, and topping UC Irvine’s Becky Bernhard and Clare Fermin, 8-4. In singles, Gloria avenged losses the past two seasons to UCLA’s Riza Zalameda, beating the No. 25-ranked Bruin in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3. Gloria also breezed past Becky Bernhard of UC Irvine, 6-3, 6-0, to help the Bulldogs to a 6-1 victory.
Other women’s tennis nominees included: Bianca Jochimsen of Boise State was undefeated in both singles and doubles, defeating No. 58-ranked BYU’s Elizaveta Ezhova, 6-1, 6-2 and Kelsy Garland of No. 72 Texas Tech, 6-4, 6-3 ... Sophia Marks of New Mexico State led the Aggies to their fourth-straight victory, defeating Colorado State’s Lauren Strasburger, 6-1, 6-1, and pairing with teammate Aleksa Costa to overcome a 2-0 deficit, beating Lauren Strasburger and Hilary Tyler in doubles action, 8-6.
Boise State Broncos
Boise State returns home for the Boise State Classic tennis tournament, Friday, February 22 through Sunday, February 24 ... the Broncos will host the University of Idaho, Northern Arizona University, and the University of Wyoming at the BSU Boas Tennis Center ... the Boise State Classic will be the final home showing for the Broncos in February and will consist of three of the Broncos’ final seven home matches this season ... Boise State dropped seven spots to the No. 57 spot this week in the ITA Division I College Rankings ... the Broncos’ Bianca Jochimsen, who was ranked No. 81 in singles play, dropped out of the rankings this week.
Fresno State Bulldogs
14th-ranked Fresno State will head to Las Vegas, Nev., this weekend for three matches. Fresno State faces No. 32 Florida International ... Fresno State beat Florida International 5-2 last year and is 1-1 all-time against the Golden Panthers ... the Bulldogs will then meet No. 38 UNLV on Feb. 23 ... Fresno State is 6-5 all-time versus the Rebels, having won two-straight in 2006 and 2007 ... to conclude the weekend, Fresno State battles No. 34 Texas A&M ... the Bulldogs beat the Aggies 4-3 in 2006 and lost 4-3 in the only other meeting in 2001 ... Fresno State went 1-1 last weekend, falling to No. 7 UCLA, 5-2, while beating No. 36 UC Irvine, 6-1.
Hawai?i Rainbow Wahine
Hawai’i will make its first road trip of the spring season, competing in three dual matches in San Diego ... UH will play at San Diego on Thursday, Feb. 21, at No. 52 San Diego State on Friday, Feb. 22, and at UC San Diego on Sunday, Feb. 24 ... San Diego is 1-4 on the season and features one ranked singles player ... Samantha Mouly is ranked No. 39 in the latest ITA singles rankings ... No. 52 San Diego State is 4-4 on the season, all four losses coming against ranked opponents ... the Aztecs feature one ranked singles player, No. 61 Julia Trunk ... UC San Diego, a division II team, is 2-2 on the season.
Idaho Vandals
So far this spring, it’s been feast or famine for the Idaho Vandals ... Idaho was swept by New Mexico State on Sunday ... the 7-0 loss was the fourth time the Vandals have been swept this spring to go along with two perfect victories of their own ... the Vandals came out of the gate a step behind New Mexico State as they won only one of the three doubles matches ... at No. 2 doubles, Idaho’s Yvette Ly and Barbara Maciocha combined to defeat Zeljka Juricek and Stephanie Eusebe, 8-6 ... this week, the Vandals will take on Northern Arizona and Wyoming in Boise, Idaho.
Nevada Wolf Pack
Nevada fell at Washington State on Sunday ... the Wolf Pack swept all of the doubles matches to get the doubles point but Nevada won only two singles matches and fell 4-3 ... junior Caroline Bailly and Alice Hall each won in singles ... Audrey Bardot and Maria Mizyuk each lost three-set matches in singles play ... the Wolf Pack also fell to No. 66 Utah last week ... this week, Nevada looks to get back on track with a duo of road matches ... the Wolf Pack will travel to Malibu to take on Pepperdine on Saturday, Feb. 23 and then travel to Irvine to take on UC Irvine on Sunday, Feb. 24 ... this week, Maria Mizyuk is 47th in the ITA rankings.
New Mexico State Aggies
Seniors Anne Fagegaltier and Zeljka Juricek lead New Mexico State into this weekend where the Aggies host a pair of matches in the last regular season matches at the NMSU Tennis Center for the two ... the Aggies face North Texas Saturday, Feb. 23 and then host Air Force one day later on Senior Day ... New Mexico State brings a four-match winning streak into the weekend and these two matches wrap up a string of seven-straight home matches ... Fagegaltier has been a key component for the Aggies this season and she has a team-best 6-2 overall singles record ... she has put together an outstanding career where she has a 57-47 singles record entering this weekend.
San Jose State Spartans
San Jose State’s match against UC Santa Cruz has been cancelled due to inclement weather in the area ... the match was scheduled to take place Tuesday, February 19, in Santa Cruz ... the teams have not rescheduled a date to play the match ... the Spartans’ next scheduled match will be against the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos ... the first serve will be at 1:00 p.m. at Spartans Courts on Friday, February 22.
Utah State Aggies
Utah State continues action this week hosting Weber State on Thursday, Feb. 21 at the Sports Academy and Racquet Club ... on Saturday, USU will travel to Salt Lake City to play Utah ... last year, the Aggies defeated the Wildcats, 5-2, and lost, 7-0, to the Utes ... Utah State is 2-5 this season, while Weber State is 1-6 and Utah is 5-3 ... next week the Aggies will play Nevada at home on Saturday, March 1 at 10:30 a.m. ... last week, the Aggies had the week off from competition.