DENVER – Fresno State’s Remi Boutillier and Hawai`i’s Sophie Kobuch have been named the Verizon Wireless Western Athletic Conference Tennis Players of the Week for March 15-21. This is the second honor of the season and third of his career for Boutillier and the first honor of the season and third of her career for Kobuch.
Boutillier, a sophomore from Briancon, France, went 2-1 at No. 4 singles and 3-0 at No. 1 doubles as the Bulldogs went 2-1 at the prestigious Blue-Gray Classic last week with wins over No. 71 Boise State and No. 54 Oklahoma State and a loss to No. 38 Notre Dame. At No. 4 singles, Boutillier picked up straight-sets wins over Filipp Pogostkin of Boise State and David Anderson of Notre Dame. At No. 1 doubles, Boutillier teamed with Rikus de Villiers to defeat Boise State's Alex Bothe and James Meredith, No. 61 Stephen Havens and Casey Watt of Notre Dame and No. 12 Oleksandr Nedovyesov and Aleksey Bessonov of Oklahoma State.
Kobuch, a senior from Tournefeuille, France, went 2-0 in singles and 2-0 in doubles to help Hawai`i gain wins over Air Force and Lewis & Clark to snap a three-match losing skid. At No. 1 singles, she defeated Christen Monreal of Air Force and Amalia Nilsson of Lewis & Clark in straight sets. At No. 1 doubles, she teamed with Katarina Poljakova to beat Air Force's Allie Chermel and Tahlia Smoke, and Lisa Harunaga and Whitney DeBree of LCSC. In the win over Air Force, Kobuch and Poljakova came back from down 6-2 to win 8-6 and clinch the doubles point for the Rainbow Wahine.
Other male nominees included: Boise State’s James Meredith went 2-0 at No. 1 singles on the week ... Leo Rosenberg of Hawai`i went 1-0 at No. 3 singles and 1-0 at No. 3 doubles on the week … Nevada’s Wessim Derbel went 2-0 at No. 2 singles and 1-1 at No. 2 doubles last week … Bryan Marchant dropped matches at No. 3 singles and No. 1 doubles.
Other female nominees included: Boise State’s Bianca Jochimsen went 1-1 at No. 3 singles and 2-0 No. 3 doubles on the week … Laura Pola of Fresno State went 1-2 at No. 2 singles and 1-2 at Nos. 1 and 2 doubles last week … Idaho’s Silvia Irimescu went 3-0 at Nos. 2 and 3 singles and 1-0 at No. 2 doubles … Alena Erofeyeva of Louisiana Tech went 2-0 at Nos. 4 and 5 singles last week … Utah State’s Kristina Voytsekhovich went 1-1 at No. 3 singles on the week.