DENVER ? This week, five WAC schools are in action with three of those teams closing out their regular-season schedules. Hawai?i will welcome Azusa Pacific to Honolulu on Apr. 10, while Idaho will host Gonzaga in Moscow on Apr. 10. The Nevada Wolf Pack will host UC Davis on Apr. 12 in Reno. New Mexico State will make the trip to Wichita, Kan., to take on Missouri Valley Conference opponents, Wichita State, Illinois State and Bradley, Apr. 11-13. The Aggies of Utah State will travel to Ogden, Utah, to take on in-state rival Weber State, Apr. 9, before returning to Logan to host Northern Colorado, Apr. 11.
Both No. 35 Boise State and No. 52 Fresno State will take this weekend off before returning to action next week. The Broncos of Boise State will welcome UC Santa Barbara and Weber State to Boise, Apr. 20, while the Bulldogs of Fresno State welcome Pacific to Fresno, Calif., Apr. 20.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK ? Fresno State’s Rudolf Siwy has been named the Western Athletic Conference Tennis Player of the Week for the week of Mar. 31 ? Apr. 6. This is the third career Player of the Week honor for Siwy, earning the award once as a sophomore and once already this season as a junior.
Siwy, a junior from Trinec, Czech Republic, (Gymnazium Trinec), proved that he is a force to be reckoned with, taking down the No. 6-ranked Andre Begemann of No. 13 Pepperdine (2-6, 6-3, 6-2). Siwy also defeated Philip Therp of UC Santa Barbara (6-4, 7-6) in the Bulldogs win over the Gauchos (4-3). He also paired with teammate Mirko Zapletal to top UC Santa Barbara’s Jack Hui and Therp (8-6) at the No. 1 doubles position. Siwy is now 24-7 overall and 17-3 in dual matches this season.
Other men’s tennis nominees included: Clancy Shields of Boise State aided the Broncos to victories over Idaho (6-1), No. 61 San Diego (6-1), going undefeated in both singles and doubles action, earning wins over Stanislav Glukhov of Idaho (6-2, 5-7, 6-4), and San Diego’s Dean Jackson (6-3, 6-4), both at the No. 2 position... Andreas Weber of Hawai?i led the Rainbow Warriors to an upset victory over No. 66 UC Irvine (5-2), picking up wins over Juan Gomez of No. 48 San Diego State, 6-2, 7-6 (4) and Trevor Dobson of UC Irvine, 6-7, 6-3, 6-2, both at the No. 3 position ... Jonas Tyden of Utah State led the Aggies to a victory over Idaho State (5-2), topping Alex Buceta (6-0, 6-3) at the No. 4 singles position, and teaming with Jakob Asplund at No. 1 doubles to defeat Marc Pijoan and Javier Royo (8-5).
Boise State Broncos
No. 36 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 will take this weekend off before their final two home matches slated for Apr. 20 against UC Santa Barbara and Weber State.
Fresno State Bulldogs
No. 53 Fresno State comes off a split pair of road matches, first defeating UC Santa Barbara (4-3), before falling to No. 13 Pepperdine (5-2) ... 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 will take this weekend off before returning to action at home to host Pacific on Apr. 20.
Hawai?i Rainbow Warriors
Hawai?i returns home after splitting a pair of road matches, first falling to No. 48 San Diego State (5-2), before bouncing back to upset No. 66 UC Irvine (5-2) ... the win over the Anteaters snapped a six-match road losing streak for the Rainbow Warriors ... the Rainbow Warriors were led by junior Sascha Heinemann and sophomore Andreas Weber, who each tallied two victories in singles action over both the Aztecs and the Anteaters ... No. 115-ranked Heinemann topped Matan Shitrit of San Diego State (6-2, 6-3) and No. 111-ranked Victor Lamm of UC Irvine (6-3, 6-1), while No. 107-ranked Weber took down San Diego State’s Juan Gomes, 6-2, 7-6 (4), and Trevor Dobson of UC Irvine, 6-7, 6-3, 6-2 ... this week, the Rainbow Warriors close out their 2008 home season, welcoming Azusa Pacific to Honolulu, Apr. 10.
Idaho Vandals
Idaho returns from a pair of road matches in Boise, Idaho, falling to both No. 36 Boise State (6-1) and No. 61 San Diego (5-2) ... against WAC foe Boise State, freshman Andrey Potapkin earned the Vandals only victory over No. 81-ranked Luke Shields, 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-6), at the No. 1 position ... the Vandals earned the doubles point against No. 61 San Diego, with Potapkin and Stanislav Glukhov taking down Thomas Liversage and Charl Wolmarans (8-6) and Paulo Miranda and Hugh McDonald defeating Tamer Antabi and Levon Brown (8-2) ... senior Robert Chalkey also defeated San Diego’s Nils Schive (6-1, 6-0) at the No. 4 singles position ... up next, the Vandals close out their 2008 regular season with their only home match of the spring against Gonzaga, Apr. 10 ... the Vandals will hope to avenge their previous 5-2 defeat to the Bulldogs back on Feb. 29.
Nevada Wolf Pack
Nevada hosted two home matches, first falling to San Francisco (5-2), before rallying to top UC Riverside (6-1) ... the Wolf Pack was led by junior Benjamin David and freshman Kristian Kuharszky, who each tallied two singles victories over the Dons and the Highlanders ... David took down San Francisco’s Rainer Nachbauer (6-3, 6-0) and Gorjan Kovasevic of UC Riverside (6-4, 6-3), while Kuharszky defeated San Francisco’s Einar Hart (6-3, 6-0) and John Park of UC Riverside (6-2, 6-4), both at the No. 4 position ... Kuharszky and teammate Alex Daruty also paired together to earn two doubles victories, beating Mitch Del Rosario and Torin Ching of San Francisco (8-6) and Sebastian Ko and Jack Tedevosian of UC Riverside (8-4) ... this week, the Wolf Pack continue their seven-match homestand, welcoming UC Davis to Reno, Apr. 12.
New Mexico State Aggies
New Mexico State returns from San Antonio after tallying three wins over host Texas-San Antonio (4-3), Lamar (5-2) and Samford (5-2), Mar. 26-28 ... the Aggies were led by sophomores Gustave Diep and Alejandro de Mucha, who both tallied three victories in singles action ... Diep topped Rodrigo Morgado of Texas-San Antonio (3-6, 6-3, 6-4), Lamar’s Filip Kanczula (6-4, 6-2) and Jordan Delass of Samford (6-3, 6-1), all at the No. 1 position ... de Mucha beat each of his opponents in straight-sets, taking down Max Stratmann of Texas-San Antonio (6-2, 6-3), Lamar’s David Wanja (7-6, 6-0) and Richard Walsh of Samford (7-5, 6-2), all at the No. 6 spot ... this week, the Aggies return to action to take on three Missouri Valley Conference opponents in Wichita State, Illinois State and Bradley, Apr. 9-11, in Wichita, Kan.
Utah State Aggies
After a month away from action, Utah State returned to the courts to defeat Idaho State (5-2), Apr. 1 ... the Aggies beat the Bengals for the second time this season, and have now won the last four matches against Idaho State in the past two years ... the Aggies picked up wins in all three doubles matches and tallied four wins in singles matches ... sophomore Oscar Ericsson won by default over Javier Royo at the No. 2 position, while senior Jonas Tyden took down Alex Buceta (6-0, 6-3) at the No. 4 spot ... junior Matt Braithwaite won in the No. 6 position over David Kutchins (6-2, 6-1), clinching the match for the Aggies ... up next, the Aggies continue action on Apr. 9 against in-state rival Weber State in Ogden, Utah, before returning home to Logan to host Northern Colorado on Apr. 11.
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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