DENVER – Hawai`i’ s Dennis Lajola and Fresno State’s Bianca Modoc have been named the Verizon Western Athletic Conference Tennis Players of the Week for March 29-April 4. This is the first honor of the season and fourth of his career for Lajola and the first-ever honor for Modoc.
Lajola, a junior from `Aiea, O`ahu, went 2-0 in singles and 1-0 in doubles to help Hawai`i defeat No. 28 Fresno State. The Warriors also led No. 72 Idaho when the match was halted due to rain. Lajola picked up a pair of wins at No. 1 singles, knocking off Fresno State’s Mirko Zapletal, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4, and Idaho’s Adrian Simon, 6-1, 6-3. At No. 2 doubles, he teamed with Daniel Llarenas to defeat Taylor Leiby and Zapletal of Fresno State, 8-5. Lajola has won all three of his WAC singles matches this season.
Modoc, a freshman from Yorba Linda, Calif., helped the Bulldogs get off to a 3-0 conference start by going a combined 6-0 in singles and doubles in a WAC tripleheader on Saturday. She picked victories at No. 3 singles over Idaho’s Silvia Irimescu, San Jose State’s Anna Guzman and a super-tiebreaker win over Hawai’i’s Barbara Pinterova. She also went 3-0 at No. 2 doubles with partner Melissa McQueen.
Other male nominees included: Fresno State’s Remi Boutillier went 2-0 in singles and 1-1 in doubles last week … Lachlan Reed of Idaho went 1-1 in singles and 1-1 in doubles on the week ... Utah State’s Sven Poslusny went 1-1 at No. 2 singles and 1-1 at No. 2 doubles last week.
Other female nominees included: Boise State’s Bianca Jochimsen went 1-0 at No. 3 singles and 2-0 at No. 3 doubles last week … Alyssa Nafarrete of Hawai`i went 2-1 at No. 6 singles and 1-1 at No. 1 doubles on the week … Idaho’s Maria Perevoshchikova went 2-1 at No. 2 singles and 1-1 at No. 1 doubles last week ... Kristina Voytsekhovich of Utah State went 2-1 at No. 3 singles and 1-2 at Nos. 2 and 3 doubles on the week.