DENVER ? This week, five WAC schools are in action with all teams closing out their regular-season schedules. No. 35 Boise State hosts No. 65 UC Santa Barbara and Weber State in Boise on Apr. 20, while No. 49 Fresno State welcomes Pacific to Fresno on Apr. 20. Hawai?i will welcome Hawaii Pacific to Honolulu on Apr. 15, while Utah State travels to Salt Lake City to take on No. 65 UC Santa Barbara, Apr. 17. The Nevada Wolf Pack will host Sonoma State on Apr. 18 and Portland State on Apr. 20, in Reno.
Both Idaho and New Mexico State will take this weekend off to prepare for the WAC Championships, Apr. 25-27, in Las Cruces, N.M.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK ? New Mexico State’s Jim Brouleau has been named the Western Athletic Conference Tennis Player of the Week for the week of Apr. 7-13. This is the first career Player of the Week honor for Brouleau.
Brouleau, a freshman from Poitiers, France, was a perfect 3-0 in both doubles and singles play, leading the Aggies to two victories. Brouleau won all three singles matches in straight sets, topping Wichita State’s Thiago Dos Santos (6-3, 6-3), Daniel Tobar of Illinois State (6-3, 7-6) and Bradley’s Vuk Bolic (6-3, 6-3). The win over Bolic was Brouleau’s fifth-straight win and his ninth out of his last 11 singles matches. In doubles action, Brouleau paired with teammate Gustave Diep to earn three victories over Wichita State’s Albert Ballesta and Dos Santos (8-4), Nunu Jacinto and Michael Hobson of Illinois State (8-2) and Bradley’s Bolic and Wilder Sampson (8-2).
Other men’s tennis nominees included: Andreas Weber of Hawai?i led the Rainbow Warriors to a victory over NAIA powerhouse Azusa Pacific (4-3), picking up a win over Patrick Kur (6-3, 6-2) at the No. 2 position ... Laurent Garcin of Nevada won both his singles and doubles matches against UC Davis, topping Henri Landes in straight sets (6-3, 6-1) and pairing with teammate Guerin Smith to beat Michael Reiser and Daniel Elefane (8-2) ... Alex Thatcher of Utah State picked up his first singles win of the season against Northern Colorado’s Andrew Buzako (6-1, 6-0) and paired with teammate Matt Braithwaite to defeat Ryan Dunn and Buzako (8-1).
Boise State Broncos
No. 35 Boise State tallied wins over WAC-foe Idaho (6-1) and No. 61 San Diego (6-1), tallying its ninth-straight win ... the victory over the Aztecs marked the Broncos’ 14th win at home this season ... the Broncos were led by senior Brent Werbeck, juniors Clancy Shields, Steve Robertson and Paul Koenke and sophomore Blake Boswell, who each tallied two singles victories over the Vandals and the Toreros ... the Broncos swept all three doubles matches versus Idaho ... the No. 21-ranked duo of Luke and Clancy Shields also earned a doubles victory over Dean Jackson and Nils Schive of No. 61 San Diego (8-1), while Boswell and Robertson notched a victory over Levon Brown and Charl Wolmarans (8-2) ... up next, the Broncos close out their regular season with two home matches against UC Santa Barbara and Weber State, Apr. 20.
Fresno State Bulldogs
No. 53 Fresno State comes off a split pair of road matches, first defeating UC Santa Barbara (4-3), Apr. 4, before falling to No. 13 Pepperdine (5-2), Apr. 6 ... Fresno State was led by junior Rudolf Siwy, who was the only Bulldog to tally two singles victories over the Gauchos and the Waves ... Siwy earned an impressive win over No. 6-ranked Andre Begemann of Pepperdine (2-6, 6-3, 6-2), and also topped UC Santa Barbara’s Philip Therp (6-4, 7-6) ... sophomore Tejesvi Veerepalli was the only other Bulldog to earn a singles win over the Waves, taking down Omar Altmann (6-2, 2-6, 6-3) at the No. 3 position ... sophomore Mirko Zapletal clinched the match over UC Santa Barbara with a victory over Bijan Hejazi (5-7, 6-3, 6-1) ... up next, the Bulldogs close out their regular season at home, hosting Pacific on Apr. 20.
Hawai?i Rainbow Warriors
Hawai?i picked up its second-straight win, notching a 4-3 victory over NAIA powerhouse Azusa Pacific ... the Rainbow Warriors captured the doubles point, winning two of three matches over the Cougars ... in singles action, the Rainbow Warriors clinched the victory after winning three singles matches ... junior No. 115 Sascha Heinemann crushed Matthijus Boisius (6-0, 6-0) at the No. 1 position, earning his seventh-straight singles win ... sophomore No. 107 Andreas Weber raced past Patrick Kur (6-2, 6-2) at the No. 2 position, while junior Jeff Fitch earned the deciding point for the Rainbow Warriors by overpowering Ronald Chow (6-4, 7-5) at the No. 5 position ... this week, the Rainbow Warriors close out their 2008 home season, welcoming Hawaii Pacific to Honolulu, Apr. 15.
Idaho Vandals
Idaho closed out its 2008 regular season with a 6-1 win over Gonzaga, finishing the season with a winning record at 13-12 ... the Vandals earned the doubles point, taking all three matches against the Bulldogs ... Idaho quickly went up 3-0 when Andrey Potapkin and Rob Chalkey won their respective matches after their opponents retired early ... the Vandals went on to take three more singles victories, including Stanislav Glukov topping Roman Dojcak (6-3, 6-2) at the No. 2 position ... Timothy Huynk defeated Zach Radetcky, 4-6, 6-1, 1-0 (3), at the No. 4 position, while Hugh McDonald earned Idaho’s sixth point of the match, taking down Charles Adams, 6-2, 7-6 (2), at the No. 6 spot ... the Vandals will take this weekend off to prepare for the WAC Championships, Apr. 25-27, in Las Cruces, N.M.
Nevada Wolf Pack
Nevada battled back from a tough doubles loss to pull out a 4-3 victory over UC Davis, Apr. 12 ... the Wolf Pack won four of six singles matches to clinch the victory over the Aggies ... the Wolf Pack earned wins at the top four positions, including sophomore Laurent Garcin defeating Henru Landes (6-3, 6-1) at the No. 1 position and junior Benjamin David taking down Michael Reiser (6-3, 6-3) at the No. 2 spot ... sophomore Alex Daruty rallied from behind to beat Justin Garcia (3-6, 6-3, 6-4) at the No. 3 spot, while freshman Kristian Kuharszky topped Nick Lopez, 7-6 (7-3), 6-4, at the No. 4 position ... this week, the Wolf Pack close out their regular season, hosting Sonoma State, Apr. 18, and Portland State, Apr. 20 in Reno.
New Mexico State Aggies
New Mexico State returns from Wichita, Kan., after notching a 2-1 record against three Missouri Valley Conference teams to close out its regular season ... the Aggies fell to host Wichita State (6-1), but bounced back to beat Illinois State (7-0) and Bradley (4-0) ... freshman Jim Brouleau was the only Aggie to earn a point against the Shockers, topping Thiago Dos Santos in straight sets (6-3, 6-3) at the No. 3 position ... Brouleau also notched both singles and doubles wins against the Redbirds and the Braves ... Brouleau finished his regular season with five-straight wins, also winning nine out of last 11 matches ... junior Stefan McKinney and Roman Stoisavljevic both finished the regular season having won their last two matches ... the Aggies will take this weekend off to prepare for the WAC Championships, Apr. 25-27, in Las Cruces, N.M.
Utah State Aggies
Utah state comes off a split at home, first falling to Weber State (7-0), before rallying back to shut out Northern Colorado (7-0) in its home finale, improving to 6-12 on the season ... freshman Jakob Asplund and senior Fernando Gallegos registered the only Aggie win against the Wildcats, winning at No. 1 doubles over Sascha Kiehne and Fabio Mancarella (8-4) ... sophomore Alex Thatcher tallied his first singles win of the season against the Golden Bears, taking down Andrew Buzako (6-1, 6-0) at the No. 6 position ... in doubles action, former high school rivals Thatcher and junior Matt Braithwaite partnered for the first time this season, winning at No. 3 doubles against Northern Colorado’s Ryan Dunn and Buzako ... this week, the Aggies close out their regular season on Apr. 17 against UC Santa Barbara in Salt Lake City, 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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