SWENSON NAMED WAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Utah State’s Hailey Swenson has been named the Verizon Wireless Western Athletic Conference Tennis Player of the Week for Jan. 18-24. This is the first-ever honor for Swenson.
Swenson, a junior from North Salt Lake City, Utah, helped Utah State pick up a 5-2 season-opening win over Idaho State, as she earned wins at No. 1 singles and doubles. She defeated the Bengals’ Lisel Lewis, 6-0, 6-2. In doubles, she teamed with Jaclyn West to earn the Aggies’ only doubles victory, an 8-3 win over Lisel Lewis and Risa Fujiwara at the No. 1 position.
Other nominees included: Rocio Frej of Boise State went undefeated at No. 6 singles and No. 3 doubles as the Broncos picked up a pair of 7-0 wins.
WAC IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS
In the Jan. 26 ITA team rankings, Fresno State is ranked No. 15, while Boise State is No. 33 and Nevada came in at No. 69.
The Bulldogs’ Anastasia Petukhova is the lone WAC player ranked in the Jan. 5 ITA individual rankings at No. 4. In doubles, Boise State’s Lauren Megale and Pichittra Thongdach are ranked No. 24, while Florence De Vrye and Lais Ogata of Nevada are ranked No. 43.
BOISE STATE SWEEPS MONTANA, MONTANA STATE
No. 34 Boise State opened the 2010 season last Saturday with a pair of wins over Montana and Montana State. Pichittra Thongdach, Lauren Megale, Bianca Jochimsen, Stephanie Jasper, Elyse Edwards and Rocio Frej all earned two wins each in singles. In doubles, Megale/Thongdach won twice at No. 1, while Jasper/Jochimsen and Edwards/Frej were also victorious in both matches at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively.
UTAH STATE DEFEATS IDAHO STATE
Utah State picked up a season-opening win over Idaho State, 5-2, last Thursday. USU dominated the singles competition, claiming the Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 spots. The Aggies lost the doubles point, falling at Nos. 2 and 3. Hailey Swenson and Jaclyn West defeated Lisel Lewis and Risa Fujiwara, 8-3, at the No. 1 position.
NM STATE OPENS SEASON 1-2
New Mexico State went 1-2 in its opening weekend of play, defeating Weber State and falling to UNLV and Pacific.
In its season-opening match at UNLV, NM State was swept, 7-0. Sophia Marks fell at the No. 1 spot to UNLV’s Kristina Nedeltcheva, who is currently ranked 50th in the country. Isabela Kulaif played the best match for the Aggies, but was defeated 7-6, 7-6, at the No. 2 position.
In a sweep of Weber State, the Aggies won all three doubles matches against the Wildcats to pick up the first point. In singles, freshman Elizabeth Tapia picked up her first collegiate win.
Against Pacific, Kulaif and Manon Sylvain earned a victory at the No. 2 spot in doubles play, 8-1. Sylvain also picked up the Aggies’ only point in singles play, defeating Sarah Irvin in a tie-breaking set, 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-5). Marks also played in a tie-breaker, but was edged out at the No. 2 spot. At the top singles position, Kulaif was taken by Jenifer Widjaja, who is ranked 60th in the nation.
PETUKHOVA UPSETS TOP-RANKED SINGLES PLAYER
Fresno State’s Anastasia Petukhova finished the fall portion of the season with a run to the quarterfinals of the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships. In the first round, she upset her best friend and the top-ranked player in the country, Maria Mosolova of Northwestern, 6-4, 7-5. The following day, Petukhova upset No. 17 Maria Sanchez of USC. The Trojan won the first set, 3-6, but Petukhova took the next two sets, 6-3, 7-5, to advance to the quarterfinals. In her second match of the day, she met Washington’s 58th-ranked Denise Dy, with the Husky picking up a 1-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory. The victory over Sanchez was Petukhova’s fifth win of the season over a ranked opponent.
WAC TOURNAMENT TO BE HELD IN FRESNO
The 2010 WAC Tennis Tournament will be held April 29-May 2 in Fresno, Calif. The Bulldogs, winners of eight-straight WAC Tournament titles, defeated No. 2-seed Boise State, 4-3, in a match that came down to the last point to claim last year’s title.