DENVER – Idaho’s Lachlan Reed and Gabriela Niculescu have been named the Verizon Wireless Western Athletic Conference Tennis Players of the Week for Feb. 22-28. This is the second honor of the season and his career for Reed and the first-ever honor for Niculescu.
Reed, a junior from Brisbane, Australia, helped lead the Vandals to a 3-0 record on the week, including an upset of No. 59 New Mexico State. Playing at Nos. 1 and 2 singles, he went undefeated, picking up straight-sets victories over Kyle Lynch of Western New Mexico, Gustave Diep of New Mexico State and Dimitry Minkin of UT-Arlington. In doubles, he and partner Adrian Simon went 2-1 at the No. 1 position, defeating opponents from Western New Mexico and NM State and falling 9-8 to the top team from UTA. The win over the Aggies was Idaho’s second victory over a ranked opponent this season and the Vandals have won six straight matches.
Niculescu, a senior from Bucharest, Romania, helped lead Idaho to a 3-0 record last week with wins over Portland, Seattle and Portland State. She picked up wins at No. 1 singles in straight sets over Lacey Pfibsen of Portland, Katrina Schwab of Seattle and Anya Dalkin of Portland State. At No. 1 doubles, she teamed with Maria Perevoshchikova to go 3-0, blanking two of their three opponents on the week. Idaho has now won 10 straight matches.
Other male nominees included: Boise State’s James Meredith went 2-0 at No. 1 singles and 1-1 at No. 1 doubles on the week … Remi Boutillier of Fresno State went undefeated in both singles and doubles on the week … Nevada’s Wessim Derbel went 1-1 at No. 2 singles and 0-2 at No. 2 doubles on the week … Amit Maharaj of Utah State went undefeated in singles and 1-1 at No. 2 doubles on the week in wins over Montana State and Sacramento State.
Other female nominees included: Boise State’s Bianca Jochimsen went undefeated in both singles and doubles last week … Renata Kucerkova of Fresno State defeated Arizona State’s Nadia Abdala at the No. 1 spot … Hawai’i’s Sophie Kobuch went 2-1 at No. 1 singles and 1-1 at No. 1 doubles on the week ... Emma Verberne of Nevada went undefeated in both singles and doubles on the week … New Mexico State’s Ginet Pinero picked up her fifth straight singles win last week … Hailey Swenson of Utah State picked up wins at No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles vs. Montana.