Fresno State’s Francis Alcantara and New Mexico State’s Natalia Salum have been named Verizon Western Athletic Conference Men’s and Women’s Tennis Athletes of the Week, respectively, for the week of Jan. 16-22.
Alcantara, a sophomore from Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines (Xavier University High School), opened the season at home on Sunday with a singles and doubles win against No. 12 Pepperdine. Alcantara defeated Pepperdine's No. 21 Sebastian Fanselow in three sets (7-5, 3-6, 6-4) after failing behind in the second set of the match and dealing with a mid-match postponement. His win injected energy into the rest of the team and helped Fresno rally to even the dual against the Waves at 3-3. Bad weather would again postpone the final match of the dual, and a winner will be determined at a later date. Prior to his singles victory, Alcantara, and partner Remi Boutillier, bested Pepperdine’s No. 1 duo of Fanselow and Jenson Turner, 8-6, the only doubles win of the day for the Bulldogs.
Salum, a senior from Durango, Mexico (Colegio Americano Durango), opened the year with three straight-set victories to help NM State to a 1-2 record last week in Las Vegas. She never lost more than three games in any singles set and gave up just 15 games total in three singles matches. Along with partner Jodie Williams, she went 3-0 in doubles at the Nos. 1 and 2 positions. Salum and Williams were promoted to the No. 1 slot on Sunday after their pair of wins at the No. 2 slot on Friday. The tandem’s wins helped the Aggies claim the doubles point twice last week and earned the only doubles win over No. 36 UNLV on Friday.
Other men’s nominees included: Hawai'i freshman Chas Okamoto ... Idaho junior Abid Akbar … Nevada senior Wessim Derbel … New Mexico State junior Luis Ramirez … Utah State junior Sven Poslusny.
Other women’s nominees included: Nevada sophomore Michelle Okhremchuk … Utah State freshman McKenzie Davis.