MULLEN NAMED WAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Boise State's Jeff Mullen has been named the Verizon Western Athletic Conference Tennis Player of the Week for Jan. 10-16. This is the first honor of the season for Mullen.
Mullen, a sophomore from Reno, Nev. (Washoe County High School), held his own against top-ranked competition at the National Collegiate Tennis Classic in Palm Springs, Calif., on Jan. 14-16. Mullen went 1-1 in singles play and duplicated that mark in doubles play by also going 1-1. He began the tournament with a tough 6-2, 7-5 loss to Alex Brigham of No. 6 UCLA. His first win of the spring season came against Alex Moreno of No. 21 Pepperdine. Mullen rallied back after being down 6-1 in the first frame to claim the victory 1-6, 7-6 (0), 10-3. Mullen later teamed up with freshman Nathan Sereke to compete in doubles competition. The Bronco duo won their first match of the weekend, 8-2, over Kieren Thompson and Andrew Vidaller of No. 32 ranked Arizona. After that victory, Mullen and Sereke fell to Pepperdine's Alfredo Moreno and Hugh Clark in heartbreaking fashion, 9-8 (7-3), in the semifinals to end any chance at the tournament doubles title.
Other male nominees included: Alex Thatcher, Utah State
WAC IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS
In the Jan. 4 ITA rankings, five of the seven WAC teams are ranked in the top 100, with three in the top 50. Fresno State is the highest ranked WAC team at No. 28, Hawai'i comes in at No. 37, Boise State is No. 43, New Mexico State is ranked at No. 67 and Idaho rounds out the five at No. 73.
Individually, the WAC has five singles players ranked in the top 100. Marius Cirstea of Idaho is the top-ranked WAC player at No. 56, Damian Hume of Boise State is next at No. 62, Remi Bourillier of Fresno state is ranked at No. 69, Arther Surreaux of New Mexico State comes in at No. 74 and Filipp Pogostkin of Boise State garners the No. 85 ranking.
In doubles, the WAC has two teams ranked in the top 50. Fresno State's pairing of Rikus de Villiers and Remi Bourillier are the No. 21 duo and Jim Brouleau and Arthur Surreaux of New Mexico State are ranked at No. 34.
HAWAI'I OPENS SEASON WITH THREE RANKED OPPONENTS
The Rainbow Warriors kicked off their spring season against No. 13 Louisville on Jan. 7 at the Rainbow Warrior Challenge. The teams competed in both singles and doubles with the Big East champion Cardinal squad winning eight out of the ten matches. Louisville also won three of four doubles matches. Hawai'i Freshman Jonathan Brooklyn pulled off an upset by defeating No.75 Viktor Maksimcuk in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3. Fellow freshman David Schuster also was victorious taking down Adam Donaldson, 6-4, 6-4.
Hawai'i played its first dual match of the season on Jan. 8, dropping a 7-0 decision to No. 14 Duke. The Blue Devils, who boast three nationally ranked singles players, including two players in the Top 10, won all six singles matches and swept through three doubles matchups as well. The Rainbow Warriors finished up the tournament on Jan. 11 as they matched up with their third ranked opponent of the week in Tennessee. The Volunteers took all nine singles matches with eight wins in straight sets while also sweeping through the three doubles matches.
NEVADA SPLITS FIRST TWO DUAL MEETS OF 2011
In its first match of dual play in 2011, Nevada defeated UC Riverside 4-3 Jan. 14 in Northridge, Calif. Nevada took the doubles point, which proved to be the difference when the Wolf Pack and UC Riverside split the singles matches 3-3.
The Wolf Pack fell to Loyola Marymount University by a final score of 6-1 Jan. 16 in Los Angeles, Calif. The teams of Wessim Derbel and Quentin Mege and Victor Ouvrard and Kristian Kuharszky won their matches to give Nevada the early 1-0 lead, unfortunately the Wolf Pack was swept in singles play.
UTAH STATE DOWNED BY BYU IN SPRING OPENER
The Aggies dropped their season opener to in-state rival BYU, 6-1, on Jan. 14 in Provo, Utah. BYU took an early 1-0 lead after winning all three double matches. Senior Alex Thatcher captured the lone point for Utah State in a three-set thriller against BYU's Daniel Hwang, (7-5, 1-6, 10-4).
WAC TOURNAMENT TO BE HELD IN BOISE
The 2011 WAC Tennis Tournament will be held April 29-May 1 in Boise, Idaho.
Hawai'i, winners of three-straight WAC Tournament titles, defeated No. 2-seed Fresno State, 4-3 in last year's tournament.