CIRSTEA NAMED WAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Idaho’s Marius Cirstea has been named the Verizon Western Athletic Conference Men’s Tennis Player of the Week for March 21-27.
A sophomore from Bucharest, Romania, Cirstea was perfect in singles play on the week, going 4-0 at the No. 1 spot, including a win over No. 89 Damian Hume from Boise State. He helped the Vandals to a 3-1 record on the week, with the only loss coming 4-3 to No. 61 Boise State. In doubles play, Cirstea teamed with Alex Joitoiu to go 1-1, winning at No. 1 doubles over Marquette, and falling at the top spot to BSU’s No. 76 ranked team of Hume and Scotty Sears.
Other nominees included: Andy Bettles, Boise State; Rikus de Villiers, Fresno State; Dennis Lajola, Hawai‘i; and Bryan Marchant, Utah State.
WAC IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS
In the March 29 ITA team rankings, five WAC teams are ranked in the top 75. Fresno State is the highest ranked WAC team at No. 41. Boise State comes in at No. 50, Idaho is No. 54, Hawai‘i is No. 55 and New Mexico State is No. 67.
Individually, the WAC has five singles players ranked in the top 125. Arthur Surreaux of New Mexico State is the highest ranked WAC player at No. 75. Damian Hume of Boise State of Boise State is next at No. 107, followed by Marius Cirstea of Idaho at No. 110, Remi Boutillier of Fresno State at No. 115 and Dennis Lajola of Hawai’i at No. 122.
In doubles, the WAC has three teams ranked in the top 75. Fresno State’s pairing of Rikus de Villiers and Boutillier are the No. 17 duo, while Scott Sears and Hume of Boise State are ranked No. 56 and Jim Brouleau and Surreaux of New Mexico State are No. 75.
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.