DENVER ? This week, four WAC schools are in action with two schools heading to the Blue Gray Tennis Classic in Montgomery, Ala. No. 35 Boise State and No. 48 Fresno State will make the trip to Montgomery, Mar. 13-16, to compete in the Blue Gray Tennis Classic. The Nevada Wolf Pack welcome No. 39 Mississippi State to Reno, Mar. 15, while the Rainbow Wahine will host No. 33 Arkansas, Mar. 16, in Honolulu, on Mar. 9.
Idaho and New Mexico State will take this weekend off before returning to action Mar. 21-23, with the Vandals taking on Montana and Montana State in Missoula, Mont., while the Aggies travel to Oklahoma to take on Oklahoma State and Oral Roberts. Utah State will have nearly four weeks off before its next match versus Weber State in Ogden, Utah, on Apr. 9.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK ? Boise State’s Brent Werbeck has been named the Western Athletic Conference Tennis Players of the Week for the week of Mar. 3-9. This is the first career Player of the Week honor for Werbeck.
Werbeck, a senior from Austin, Texas, (Cedar Park) shined for the Broncos in victories over No. 38 William and Mary and No. 52 San Diego State. In singles action, Werbeck tallied a perfect 3-0 effort at the No. 3 position, first topping Keziel Juneau of William and Mary, 6-2, 6-0, and defeating San Diego State’s Andre Felis, 6-1, 6-3, before knocking off No. 97 Omar Altmann of No. 43 Pepperdine in a come-from-behind win, 2-6, 7-5, 6-3.
Other men’s tennis nominees included: Rudolf Siwy of Fresno State led the Bulldogs to a 6-1 win over UNLV, pairing with teammate Mirko Zapletal to defeat Elliot Wronski and Wes Burrows of UNLV (8-6), and clinching the team victory with a 6-3, 7-5 win over UNLV’s No. 93-ranked Elliot Wronski ... Laurent Garcin of Nevada won two singles matches in straight sets at the No. 1 position, topping Oregon’s Marcos Verdasco, 6-2, 7-6 (8-6), and defeating Joel Kincaid of Portland, 6-2, 6-2 ... Oscar Ericsson of Utah State was a perfect 2-0 in both singles and doubles action, defeating Montana State-Billings’ Jesse Peach, 6-1, 6-0, and taking down Pawel Turzanski of Montana State, 6-3, 6-0.
Boise State Broncos
No. 35 Boise State tallied a victory over No. 52 San Diego State, 5-1, on Mar. 8, before falling to NO. 43 Pepperdine, 4-3, on Mar. 9 ... the Broncos now hold a 7-1 record at home this season, including a 5-1 record over ITA nationally ranked teams ... Boise State was led by seniors Brent Werbeck and Piotr Dilaj, who both earned two singles victories and one doubles victory against San Diego State and Pepperdine ... Werbeck topped San Diego State’s Andre Feliz, 6-1, 6-3, and defeated No. 97-ranked Omar Altmann of Pepperdine, 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 ... Dilaj beat Jordan Colman of San Diego State, 4-6, 6-0, 7-5, and knocked off Pepperdine’s Johannes de Villiers, 6-4, 6-4 ... this week, the Broncos make the trip to Montgomery, Ala., to compete at the Blue Gray Tennis Classic, Mar. 13-16.
Fresno State Bulldogs
No. 48 Fresno State won its seventh home match of the season, defeating UNLV, 6-1, on Mar. 8 ... the Bulldogs took an early lead after winning all three doubles matches and finished off the Rebels by wining five of the six singles matches in straight sets ... junior Rudolf Siwy clinched the match for Fresno State, defeating No. 93 Elliot Wronski, 6-3, 7-5, at the No. 1 position ... three other Bulldogs breezed by their opponents, with No. 99 Mirko Zapletal defeating Lucca Barlocchi, 6-1, 6-4, freshman Martin Nilsson topping David Campbell, 6-4, 6-2, and sophomore Siddharth Alapati knocking off Andrew Giuffrida, 6-2, 6-2 ... freshman Denny Fafek also topped his Rebel opponent in straight sets, beating Bryan Miller, 7-6, 7-5 ... up next, the Bulldogs travel to Montgomery, Ala., to take part in the Blue Gray Tennis Class, Mar. 13-16.
Hawai?i Rainbow Warriors
After more than a month lay-off, Hawai’i returned to action with a 7-0 victory over Southern Illinois, on Mar. 11, in Honolulu ... the Rainbow Warriors snapped a four-match losing streak to improve to 2-7 on the season ... Hawai?i swept all three doubles positions, where Andreas Weber and Sascha Heinemann edged Lucas Waked and Anton Leoneko, 9-8 (4) in a closely contended tiebreaker at the No. 1 spot ... the Warriors steamrolled the Salukis in singles play, not dropping a single set in all six matches ... freshman Dennis Lajola swept Waked, 6-3, 6-1, at No. 1, while Weber blanked Mariano Restrepo in a 6-4, 6-0 win at No. 2 ... Heinemann posted his team-leading 12th singles victory with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Hugo Vidal at No. 3 ... freshman Craig Faulk picked up his first career win as a Warrior with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Chase Miller at No. 6. ... this week, the Rainbow Warriors will host No. 33 Arkansas on Mar. 16 in Honolulu.
Idaho Vandals
Idaho fell to No. 52 San Diego State, 7-0, on Mar. 7, but bounced back to snap a three-match skid with a 7-0 victory over Northern Colorado on Mar. 9 ... against the Golden Bears, freshman Andrey Potapkin started things for the Vandals with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Vinnie Fallico at the No. 1 singles position, before teaming with Stanislav Glukhov to win 8-1 at No. 1 doubles ... at No. 3 singles, Robert Chalkley won 6-1, 6-2 to which he added an 8-5 decision at No. 2 doubles when joined by Andrew Dobbs ... Timothy Huynh and Hugh McDonald won the No. 3 doubles competition 8-2 and individually were successful in singles with Huynh winning 6-4, 6-3 at No. 4 and McDonald winning 6-2, 6-1 at No. 5 ... up next, the Vandals will take this weekend off before returning to action against Montana and Montana State, Mar. 21-22, in Missoula, Mont.
Nevada Wolf Pack
Nevada looks to bounce back after falling 6-1 to both Oregon and Portland, Mar. 8-9 ... the Wolf Pack were led by sophomore Laurent Garcin, who picked up two singles victories against Oregon and Portland ... Garcin topped Oregon’s Marcos Verdasco, 6-2, 7-6 (8-6), before defeating Joel Kincaid of Portland, 6-2, 6-2, both at the No. 1 singles position ... Garcin also paired up with sophomore teammate Augustin Myard to earn a win in doubles action over Alex Cornelissen and Romeo Mortera of Oregon, 8-6, at the No. 2 doubles position ... the Wolf Pack return to the courts this week when they host No. 39 Mississippi State in Reno, on Mar. 15.
New Mexico State Aggies
New Mexico State comes off three-straight home victories, earning wins over Sacramento State (5-2), Utah (6-1) and Texas-Arlington (4-0), Feb. 29 - Mar. 2 ... senior Jeff Pfeiffer won his final match as an Aggie, knocking off Brieuc Hamon and Nishant Hari of Texas-Arlington, at the No. 2 doubles position with his partner Jim Brouleau ... Alejandro de Mucha and Brouleau each earned three singles and three doubles victories last weekend ... Brouleua’s win over Sacramento State’s Artur Klimenka (6-2, 6-4) at the No. 3 position ended a three-match losing streak for the freshman ... de Mucha’s win over Nishant Hari of Texas-Arlington (6-1, 6-1) was his sixth victory in his last seven matches ... the Aggies will enjoy another weekend off before returning to the courts Mar. 22-23 against Oklahoma State and Oral Roberts in Stillwater, Okla.
Utah State Aggies
Utah State looks to bounce back after falling to Montana State, 4-3, on Mar. 6 in Logan ... the Aggies were led by sophomore Oscar Ericsson and senior Fernando Gallegos, who both earned singles victories and teamed up to earn the only doubles win over Montana State ... Ericsson knocked off Pawel Turzanksi, 6-4, 6-2, at the No. 2 position, while Gallegos defeated Jakub Dybala, 6-0, 1-6, 6-4, at the No. 3 spot ... senior Jonas Tyden also tallied a win at No. 4 singles, topping Montana State’s Fletcher Keyes, 6-4, 0-6, 6-4 ... Ericsson and Gallegos teamed up to beat Keyes and Myles Perkins, 8-4, at the No. 2 doubles position ... up next, the Aggies will have nearly four weeks off before returning to action on Wednesday, Apr. 9 against Weber State in Ogden, Utah.
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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