DENVER – Boise State’s Vicente Joli and Fresno State’s Anastasia Petukhova have been named the Verizon Wireless Western Athletic Conference Tennis Players of the Month for October. This is the first honor of the season and career for Joli and the first honor of the season and fourth of her career for Petukhova.
Joli, a senior from Castellon, Spain, compiled a 6-1 singles record in the month of October, with his only loss coming at the D’Novo ITA All-American Championships. At the ITA Mountain Regional, he won the singles title, posting six straight victories, including wins over the No. 3 and No. 4 tournament seeds, and only having one match go three sets. In doubles play, he posted a 3-3 record on the month, with two of those losses coming against the No. 2 and No. 10 ranked teams in the country.
Petukhova, a senior from Moscow, Russia, won the consolation championship of the ITA All-American. After dropping her first match to No. 8 Irina Falconi of Georgia Tech, she rattled off four straight-set victories, defeating Ariel Ellis of Texas, No. 47 Pichittra Thongdach of Boise State, No. 53 Allison Ramos of USC and No. 11 Yasmin Schnack of UCLA. At the ITA Northwest Regional, she advanced to the Round of 16, where she fell to Mallory Burdette of Stanford. In doubles play, she teamed with Bianca Modoc to advance to the quarterfinals of the regional.
Other male nominees included: Fresno State’s Mirko Zapletal defeated No. 63 Bryant Salcedo and advanced to the doubles championship of the ITA Northwest Regional … Alex Joitiu of Idaho compiled an 8-1 singles mark and a 7-1 doubles record in October … Nevada’s Wessim Derbel reached the semifinals at the ITA Mountain Regional and the quarterfinals of the Bulldog Classic … Jim Brouleau of New Mexico State compiled a 6-2 singles record on the month … Utah State’s Bryan Marchant went 5-2 in singles and 7-2 in doubles play on the month.
Other female nominees included: Pichittra Thongdach of Boise State won the singles and doubles titles at the ITA Mountain Regional ... Idaho’s Barbara Maciocha was the lone Vandal to win at the Mountain Regional … Vivian ten Dolle of Louisiana Tech won her singles and doubles flights at the Stephen F. Austin Invitational … Nevada’s Emma Verbenne finished with a 7-2 singles record and 5-2 doubles mark in October ... Sophia Marks of New Mexico State was 2-2 in singles action and 1-1 in doubles play during October ... Utah State’s Jaclyn West advanced to the final round of the Utah Open in singles and won the doubles competition.