PEREVOSHCHIKOVA NAMED WAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Idaho’s Maria Perevoshchikova has been named the Verizon Wireless Western Athletic Conference Tennis Player of the Week for Feb. 8-14. This is the second honor of the season and of her career.
A senior from Izhezek, Russia, Perevoshchikova was perfect last week, compiling a 4-0 record in singles and doubles play as Idaho moved its win streak to six matches. She claimed singles victories against Seattle’s Katrina Schwab at the No. 1 spot and Christina Goehl of Pacific at the No. 2 spot. In doubles, she teamed with Alexandra Ulesanu at the No. 1 spot to beat Seattle’s top pair. Against Pacific, Perevoshchikova and Daniela Cohen won at the No. 2 spot, 8-5.
Other nominees included: Utah State’s Hailey Swenson went 2-1 at No. 1 singles and 2-1 at No. 1 doubles on the week.
HAWAI’I DROPS THREE CLOSE MATCHES IN CALIFORNIA
Hawai`i dropped a trio of close matches last week, falling 4-3 at Loyola Marymount, 5-2 at No. 45 San Diego and 4-3 to No. 48 San Diego State. The Rainbow Wahine are now 1-5 on the season, with four of their losses coming at the hands of ranked opponents. Sophie Kobuch, Katarina Poljakova and Natasha Zorec each went 2-1 in singles on the week.
IDAHO WINS SIXTH-STRAIGHT MATCH
Idaho picked up its sixth win in a row last Saturday, knocking off Pacific, 4-3. The highlight of the day came from Gabriela Niculescu’s upset of Jenifer Widjaja, who entered the match ranked No. 60 in singles. For the second week in a row, the match came down to Basia Maciocha, and for the second week in a row the junior came up big, overcoming Sasha Fisher 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 to clinch the match for Idaho. The Vandals defeated Seattle 5-1 and Lewis-Clark State 7-0 earlier in the week.
LOUISIANA TECH POSTS DOMINATING VICTORIES
Louisiana Tech picked up a pair of 7-0 sweeps last weekend of Central Arkansas and Arkansas Pine-Bluff. Against Central Arkansas, Tech had four come-from-behind wins in singles. Against UAPB, in the 65 games played in singles and doubles, LA Tech lost only one.
UTAH STATE GOES 1-2 ON WEEK
Utah State went 1-2 last week, dropping a 4-3 match to UC Riverside, falling 0-7 to No. 39 UNLV and sweeping Weber State. In the loss to the Highlanders, Utah State picked up wins at Nos. 1, 2 and 4. Hailey Swenson won at No. 1, bringing her singles record to 4-1 on the season. In the win over the Wildcats, Utah State posted straight-set wins in four of the six singles positions and swept doubles.
WAC IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS
In the Feb. 12 ITA team rankings, Boise State is ranked No. 35, while Fresno State is No. 42 and Nevada came in at No. 71.
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.
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.