DENVER ? Hawai?i’s Sophie Kobuch and Boise State’s Luke Shields have been named the Western Athletic Conference Tennis Players of the Week for the week of Apr. 14-20. This is the first career Player of the Week honor for Kobuch and the eighth career honor for Shields, earning the award once already this season, twice as a junior, once as a sophomore and three times as a freshman.
Kobuch, a sophomore from Tournefeuille, France, was a perfect 4-0 in both single and doubles play, leading the Rainbow Wahine to four victories over Eastern Washington (4-3), WAC foe Idaho (5-2), Hawaii Pacific (4-3) and Chaminade (6-1). In singles play, Kobuch topped all four of her opponents in straight sets, including Kasey Knox of Eastern Washington (6-1, 6-1), Idaho’s Silvia Irimsecu (6-3, 6-1), Hawaii Pacific’s Ingrid Cseh (6-3, 6-2) and Audra Takara of Chaminade (6-1, 6-1), all at the No. 1 position. In doubles action, Kobuch paired with teammate Chloe Bihag to win all four matches. Kobuch has now won five-straight singles matches and the tandem of Kobuch and Bihag have paired up to win five consecutive doubles matches. Kobuch has helped the Rainbow Wahine win six of their last eight matches after losing 14-straight matches to start the season.
Shields, a senior from Grand Junction, Colo., (Grand Junction) went undefeated in both doubles and singles action, leading the No. 35-ranked Broncos to two victories over No. 65 UC Santa Barbara (7-0) and Weber State (6-1). Shields won both of his singles matches in straight sets, topping UC Santa Barbara’s Philip Therp (6-2, 6-3) and Henning Hipp of Weber State (6-2, 7-5), both at the No. 1 position. Shields also paired with brother Clancy as the No. 18-ranked doubles tandem to take down UC Santa Barbara’s Bijan Hejazi and Therp (8-4), then teamed with senior Piotr Dilaj to defeat Fabio Mancarella and Sascha Kiehne of Weber State (8-3). Shields has led the Broncos to an impressive 21-10 on the season, as well as extend their winning streak to eleven-straight matches.
Other women’s tennis nominees included: Anastasia Petukhova of Fresno State was perfect in both singles and doubles with wins over No. 37 Long Beach State (6-1), Cal Poly (6-1) and Pacific (7-0), tallying singles victories in straight-sets over Stephanie Bengson of Long Beach State (6-1, 6-2), Cal Poly’s Whitney Peterson (6-1, 6-2) and Svenja Arens of Pacific (6-1, 6-0) ... Caroline Bailly of Nevada went undefeated in both singles and doubles play in a win over UC Davis (6-1), topping Desiree Stone (6-1, 6-2) for her seventh-straight singles victory, and pairing with teammate Maria Mizyuk for an 8-3 victory over Randi Schuler and Herzyl Legaspi.
Other men’s tennis nominees included: Tejesvi Veerepalli of Fresno State helped the Bulldogs to a 7-0 win over Pacific, clinching the doubles point with his partner Flavio Mollinedo in an exciting 9-7 victory over Austin Kakar and Vegerd Veskimagi, before fighting through an injury to take down Artem Gramma, 6-2, 7-6 (3) ... Andreas Weber of Hawai?i led the Rainbow Warriors to a victory over Division II powerhouse Hawaii Pacific (6-1), picking up a win over Mark Mestan (6-2, 6-0) at the No. 3 position, before teaming with Sascha Heinemann to blank Mestan and Anton Samuilau (8-0) at the No. 1 doubles spot ... Laurent Garcin of Nevada won lead the Wolf Pack to wins over Sonoma State (7-0) and Portland State (7-0), earning two singles victories in straight sets over Andy Muesse of Sonoma State (6-0, 6-3) and Portland State’s Alex VanDerschelden (6-2, 6-3).
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