ON TAP IN WAC MEN’S TENNIS ? Western Athletic Conference play begins this weekend for four teams this weekend. No. 40 Fresno State, No. 63 Hawai?i, Idaho and Utah State will all make their way to Fresno, Calif., to compete for that pivotal first conference win. No. 23 Boise State hosts No. 36 New Mexico in a late-season non-conference match.
ATHLETE OF THE WEEK (March 23-29 )
DENVER - Nevada’s Laurent Garcin has been named Western Athletic Conference Men’s Tennis Player of the Week for March 23-29.
Garcin, a junior from Chateauroux les alpes, France (Aristide Briand HS) , led the Wolf Pack to three-straight wins in three-consecutive days last weekend in Reno. First, he posted a, 6-1, 6-1, victory over Gonzaga’s Stefan Feddersen in the No. 1 position, to aid in Nevada’s 6-1 win. He then continued his dominance onto the doubles’ court, as he paired with Augustin Myard to take down the Bulldog duo of Feddersen/Feeney, 8-4. In the Nevada’s 4-3 victory over the Saint Mary’s (CA), Garcin posted an impressive 6-0, 6-1, win over Gaels’ Achim Christner in the No. 1 spot. The senior closed out his weekend with a 6-0, 6-0, defeat of Colin Dektar of Montana in the top spot to go along with a doubles win with Myard on the way to a 5-2 victory over UM. Overall, Garcin finished 3-0 in singles play to move into fourth place on the school’s all-time career singles win list. It marks the first time this season he has garnered the WAC weekly honor.
Other male nominees: Boise State’s Kean Feeder, Fresno State’s Tejesvi Veerepalli, New Mexico State’s Roman Stoisavljevic and Utah State’s Jakob Asplund.
TEAM NOTES
Boise State Broncos
Boise State solidified its No. 23 ranking last week after a 3-0 run at the Boise State Spring Break Invitational, including wins over Idaho State, Memphis and No. 44 Nebraska ... senior Clancy Shields earned a season-high singles ranking of No. 26 (also ranked 26th on March 3), while fellow senior Kean Feeder sits at the No. 70 position after he went 5-0 on the weekend, including a 2-0 showing in singles play and a 3-0 record in doubles; his two singles wins extends his streak to five straight wins and improves his season dual record to 15-3 (19-4 overall) ... the Broncos improve to 14-7 on the season ... they will take an entire week off from play and will return to the courts on Sun., Apr. 5 when they host New Mexico at 1 p.m. at the Appleton Tennis Complex in Boise.
Fresno State Bulldogs
The No. 40th-ranked Bulldogs are on a four match win streak that dates back to March 20, including three wins against ranked opponents ... during that stretch, they have allowed just two points against ... Rudolf Siwy leads the team with a national ranking of 64 ... after a week off, the Bulldogs took care of business at home against No. 67th-ranked UC Irvine, 7-0, on Tuesday ... Siwy and teammate Mirko Zeplatel have the highest doubles ranking in the conference at No. 50 ... this week, Fresno State will compete in its first WAC match against No. 63 Hawai?i ... the point at the No. 1 will be hard fought as the 64th-ranked Siwy goes up against No. 93rd-ranked Dennis Lajola ... the team will also compete against Idaho and Utah State to close out the weekend matches.
Hawai?i Rainbow Warriors
Hawai?i jumped up 16 spots in the latest ITA rankings, after finishing with a 1-2 record at the Blue Gray Tennis Classic in Montgomery, Ala., two weekends ago ... the Rainbow Warriors earned a 4-1 win over No. 56 Middle Tennessee State, but fell to No. 29 Wisconsin and No. 41 Oklahoma ... senior Jeff Fitch led UH with a 2-1 singles record and a 2-0 mark in doubles play ... after a week off from competition, Hawai?i returns to the mainland for the first week of conference play on April 3 ... the No. 63rd-ranked Rainbow Warriors will open WAC play against No. 40 Fresno State, a rematch of the 2008 WAC Championship match ... UH defeated the Bulldogs 4-2 in the final match to advance to the NCAA tournament.
Idaho Vandals
Idaho split a pair of matches in Portland, Saturday ... UI ended the day with a 5-2 victory over Portland State but could not stop the University of Portland from claiming a 4-2 win in the morning match ... the Vandals showed the effects of their morning match falling in doubles 2-1 ... the team bounced back in singles claiming victories in spots two through six to improve its record to 12-7 ... Stanislav Glukhov, Alan Shin, Hugh McDonald and Timothy Huynh all won in straight sets ... Alex Joitoiu notched a hard fought three-set victory over Kyle Erickson 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 ... this week, UI takes on Utah State in Fresno, Calif., on Friday, where each team will look for its first conference win ... the team will finish the weekend with matches against No. 40 Fresno State and No. 63 Hawai?i.
Nevada Wolf Pack
Nevada improved its national ranking to 61, the third-best ranking in the WAC after a 3-0 weekend, with victories coming against Gonzaga (6-1,) St. Mary’s (4-3) and Montana (5-2) ... freshman Wessim Derbel broke into the national rankings for the first time this year at No. 123 ... he is now 11-1 and is also on a five-match winning streak in the No. 2 spot ... against Gonzaga, Derbel defeated Roman Dojcak 4-6, 6-2, 10-7 and against Saint Mary’s Derbel defeated Lucas Tirelli 6-4, 6-2 ... playing at the top position, junior Laurent Garcin earned WAC weekly honors after he went 3-0 on the weekend and moved into fourth place on the school’s all-time singles win list ... the Wolf Pack takes a week off before continuing conference play against New Mexico State on April 10.
New Mexico State Aggies
New Mexico State has a 3-2 record in one-point matches this season... the Aggies went 11-6 in their non-conference portion of their schedule ...Every one of the team’s six losses this season have either come against a ranked opponent or at the hands of a team that is currently in the national rankings ... senior Roman Stoisavljevic ended a six match singles losing streak with two victories in three matches last week ... It started with his 7-5, 6-3 win at No. 4 over Jamal Adderley from 40th-ranked South Florida and then he helped the Aggies beat Brown, 4-3, with his win at No. 3 singles ... the Aggies take a week off in preparation for WAC play next weekend against No. 63 Nevada and No. 23 Boise State in Reno, Nev.
Utah State Aggies
Sophomore Jakob Asplund was the only Aggie to win both his doubles matches this week as the Aggies went 1-1 defeating Weber State 4-3 Tuesday and falling to Montana State, 5-2, Sunday ... Asplund won his number one singles match, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, against WSU’s Sascha Kiehne and went on to defeat MSU’s Jakub Dybala, 5-7, 6-4, 7-6, and was the only Aggie to win in singles action Sunday ... Utah State is 8-6 on the season and will continue action Friday and Saturday, April 3-4 in Fresno, Calif. against Idaho, No. 40 Fresno State and No. 63 Hawaii.
WAC TOURNAMENT TO BE HELD IN HONOLULU- This season, the Western Athletic Conference Tournament will return to Honolulu, Hawaii on the campus of Hawai?i, April 23-26. The 2008 champion, Hawai?i, will look to defend its’ crown after it earned its first-ever WAC title with a 4-2 win over second-seeded Fresno State.