DENVER ? This week, five WAC schools are in action with two schools competing in the BSU Spring Break Invitational in Boise, Idaho, Mar. 21-23. The No. 35 Broncos will host the BSU Spring Break Invitational, welcoming WAC foe Nevada to Boise. No. 50 Fresno State welcomes No. 28 TCU to Fresno, Mar. 21, while Idaho makes the trip to Missoula, Mont., to take on Montana and Montana State, Mar. 21-22. New Mexico State travels to Stillwater, Okla., where the Aggies will take on Oklahoma State and Oral Roberts, Mar. 22-23.
Hawai?i will take this weekend off before returning to action Mar. 29-23, when the Rainbow Warriors take on Tulsa, Mar. 29. Utah State will have nearly three weeks off before its next match versus Weber State in Ogden, Utah, on Apr. 9.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK ? Boise State’s Clancy Shields has been named the Western Athletic Conference Tennis Player of the Week for the week of Mar. 10-16. This is the fourth career honor for Shields, earning the award once as a sophomore and twice as a freshman.
Shields, a junior from Grand Junction, Colo., (Grand Junction) shined for the Broncos at the Blue Gray Tennis Classic in Montgomery, Ala., helping Boise State to team victories over No. 46 Oklahoma (4-1) and No. 30 Notre Dame (4-3). In singles action, Shields tallied a perfect 2-0 effort at the No. 2 position, first topping Oklahoma’s Ionut Beleleu, 6-2, 6-1, before knocking off No. 81 Sheeva Parbhu of Notre Dame, 6-0, 6-4. In doubles play, Shields paired with his teammate and brother Luke Shields as the No. 41-ranked doubles tandem, notching two victories at the No. 1 position, upsetting No. 28 Federico Chavarria and Andrei Daescu of Oklahoma (8-6) before taking down Notre Dame’s Brett Helgeson and Parbhu (8-3).
Other men’s tennis nominees included: Rudolf Siwy of Fresno State notched two singles victories and one doubles win at the Blue Gray Classic, beating Martin Schullhauser of No. 19 Virginia Commonwealth, 7-6, 6-3, before topping Brown’s Saurabh Kohli, 6-4, 6-2, both at the No. 1 position ... Andreas Weber of Hawai’i was a perfect 2-0 in both singles and doubles play, knocking off Southern Illinois’ Mariano Restrepo (6-4, 6-0) and Colin Mascall of No. 33 Arkansas (6-0, 6-3), both at the No. 2 position.
Boise State Broncos
No. 35 Boise State returns home from Montgomery, Ala., after tallying two wins in the Blue Gray Tennis Classic, Mar. 13-15 ... the Broncos advanced to the quarterfinals after defeating No. 46 Oklahoma, 4-1, then fell to No. 62 Penn State, 4-1 ... the Broncos bounced back to upset No. 30 Notre Dame, 4-3, in their final match of the weekend ... junior Steve Robertson notched three victories at the No. 5 singles position, first topping Vlad Marinescu of Oklahoma, 6-0, 6-1, before beating Penn State’s Tryn Gormley, 6-4, 6-4, and finally defeating Steven Havens of Notre Dame, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 ... the No. 13-ranked tandem of Luke and Clancy Shields also brought home two doubles victories, taking down the No. 1 pair for the Sooners and the Irish ... this week, the Broncos host the BSU Spring Break Invitational, Mar. 21-23, in Boise, Idaho.
Fresno State Bulldogs
No. 50 Fresno State returns home from Montgomery, Ala., after falling in three matches at the Blue Gray Tennis Classic, Mar. 21-23 ... the Bulldogs fought hard but fell in matches to No. 19 Virginia Commonwealth (4-1), No. 64 Wisconsin (4-2) and Brown (4-1) ... the Bulldogs were led by junior Rudolf Siwy and, who tallied two singles victories at the Blue Gray Tennis Classic ... Siwy took down VCU’s Martin Schullhauser (7-6, 6-3) and Brown’s Saurabh Kohli (6-4, 6-2), both at the No. 1 spot ... freshmen Denny Fafek and Siddharth Alapati also each earned one singles victory on the weekend ... Fafek topped Jeremy Sonkin of Wisconsin (6-3, 6-2) at the No. 4 position, while Alapati took down Wisconsin’s Peter Marrack (6-1, 6-3) at the No. 6 position ... up next, the Bulldogs travel to Montgomery, Ala., to take part in the Blue Gray Tennis Class, Mar. 13-16.
Hawai?i Rainbow Warriors
Hawai?i concluded its two-match homestand with a tough 4-3 loss to SEC powerhouse and No. 33 Arkansas ... the Rainbow Warriors dropped to 2-8 on the season, with five losses coming by the score of 4-3 ... the Razorbacks took the doubles point, after winning two of the three matches ... Hawai?i duo of Sascha Heinemann and Andreas Weber upended the team of Tyler Tarnasky and Colin Mascall at the No. 1 spot, 8-3 ... the Rainbow Warriors won the top three singles matches, with Heinemann, Weber and freshman Dennis Lajola all beating their opponent in straight sets ... Lajola blew by Blake Strode (6-2 6-1) at the No. 1 court, while Weber made quick work of Mascall (6-0, 6-3) ... Heinemann defeated Matthew Hogan (7-5, 6-2) at the No. 3 position ... up next, the Rainbow Warriors take this weekend off before returning to action at Tulsa, Mar. 29.
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 ... this week, the Vandals return to action against Montana and Montana State, Mar. 21-22, in Missoula, Mont.
Nevada Wolf Pack
Nevada looks to bounce back after falling 6-0 to No. 39 Mississippi State, Mar. 15, in Reno, Nev. ... the teams did not play doubles matches, and the Bulldogs swept all six singles matches against the Wolf Pack ... at the No. 1 position, sophomore Laurent Garcin fell to Ivan Bjelica in a very tight match, 7-5, 7-6 (7-5), while teammate Gabe Kanzelmeyer also lost in a close tiebreaker match at the No. 5 spot to Tanner Stump, 6-1, 5-7 (10-5) ... sophomore Augustin Myard fell at the No. 6 position to Artem Kuznetsov, 7-5, 6-3 ... this week, the Wolf Pack return to action when they travel to Boise, Idaho, to take part in the BSU Spring Break Invitational, Mar. 21-23.
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 ... this week, the Aggies return 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 three 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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