DENVER ? Fresno State’s Anastasia Petukhova and New Mexico State’s Roman Stoisavljevic have been named the Western Athletic Conference Tennis Players of the Week for the week of Feb. 18-24. This is the second career Player of the Week honor for Petukhova, earning the award once as a freshman and the third career honor for Stoisavljevic, earning the honor once as both a sophomore and freshman.
Petukhova, a sophomore from Moscow, Russia, (A.M. Gorky), shined for the Bulldogs in three victories over No. 32 Florida International, No, 38 UNLV and No. 34 Texas A&M, Feb. 22-24. The No. 14 nationally-ranked pair of Petukhova and teammate Renata Kucerkova won all of their doubles matches, convincingly defeating Maria Spenceley and Alyona Tsutskova of No. 32 Florida International, 8-1, topping No. 38 UNLV’s Anna Maskaljun and Katy Williams, 8-3, and beating Anna Blagodarova and Michelle Sammons of No. 34 Texas A&M, 8-6. In singles, Petukhova, ranked No. 20 in singles was victorious at the No. 2 singles position, winning each match in straight sets. She defeated Egle Petrauskaite of No. 32 Florida International, 6-2, 6-2, topped No. 38 UNLV’s Kristina Nedeltcheva, 6-4, 6-2, and beat Anna Blagodarova of No. 34 Texas A&M, 6-4, 6-2. Petukhova has won seven-straight matches in singles and is now 22-4 overall and 4-1 in dual matches this season.
Stoisavljevic, a junior from Zagreb, Croatia, was perfect in both singles and doubles in matches against No. 57 New Mexico and No. 41 Texas Tech, Feb. 22-24. Stoisavljevic and his teammate Eduardo Salas convincingly defeated Texas Tech’s No. 2 nationally ranked doubles pair of Christian Rojmar and Bojan Szumanske, 8-2. In singles play, Stoisavljevic won his first match in three sets at the No. 3 position over Graeme Kassautzki of No. 57 New Mexico, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, before winning in straight sets at the No. 3 position over No. 41 Texas Tech’s Sinisa Markovic, 6-4, 6-4.
Other women’s tennis nominees included: Pichittra Thongdach of Boise State was undefeated in both singles and doubles, defeating Idaho’s Silvia Irimescu, 6-1, 6-4, Corina Lazar of Wyoming, 6-0, 6-1, and topping Northern Arizona’s Edit Suhajada, 6-2, 6-3, leading the Broncos to three victories ... Sophia Kobuch of Hawai’i was perfect in both singles and doubles, defeating Monica Wiesener of San Diego, 6-3, 7-5, and topping Holly Bagshaw of No. 50 San Diego State, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 ... Basi Maciocha of Idaho finished a perfect 3-0 in singles, defeating Klaudia Wlodarczyk of No. 57 Boise State, 2-6, 6-4, 10-7, Pail Porter of Northern Arizona, 6-0, 6-3, and taking down Michelle Brown of Wyoming, 6-0, 6-3 ... Sophia Marks of New Mexico State topped North Texas’ Madura Ranganathan, 6-3, 6-1, before coasting by Air Force’s Christine Abayan, 6-0, 6-2, both at the No. 1 singles position.
Other men’s tennis nominees included: Steve Robertson of Boise State went 2-0 in singles against No. 37 Stanford and No. 71 Fresno State, defeating Stanford’s Phil Kao, 6-1, 6-1 and Siddarth Alapati of Fresno State, 6-0, 6-1 ... Tejesvi Veerepalli of Fresno State clinched wins for the Bulldogs over No. 28 Boise State and No. 69 Nebraska, earning a 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Boise State’s Brent Werbeck and topping Nebraska’s Hendrik Stahmer, 6-2, 7-6 (2), improving to 16-7 overall and 6-3 in dual matches this season.
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