DENVER - UT Rio Grande Valley's Juan Cruz Soria and Grand Canyon's Tatum Prudhomme have been named Western Athletic Conference Tennis Players of the Week, respectively, for Feb. 1-7
Soria, a junior from San Juan, Argentina (Escuela Modelo de San Juan) went undefeated on the weekend after going 3-0 in singles and 2-0 in doubles. He improved to a team-leading 5-2 in singles on the season, while playing all of his matches at the No. 1 spot. Soria defeated No. 3 Texas A&M's Aleksandre Bakshi 7-6, 3-6, 10-7 in the first of two singles matches on Friday. He then closed out his day with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Praire View A&M's Christian Waldron. Soria returned home on Sunday to defeat Lamar's Michael Feucht 7-6, 6-4 at the No. 1 spot as he recorded the lone point for the Vaqueros against the Cardinals. In doubles, he teamed with Yehonatan Kaufman for the first time this season as they defeated Prairie View A&M's Christian Waldron and Sergio Avella 7-5 and then they beat Lamar's Jeandre Hoogenboezem and Nikita Lis 6-3 on Sunday.
Prudhomme, a junior from Glendale, Ariz. (Connections Academy) went undefeated on the weekend after going 1-0 in singles and 1-0 in doubles against Western New Mexico. She is currently 4-2 in singles this year at No. 1 and 6-0 in doubles this year at No. 1.
Other men's nominees: Grand Canyon's Alexander Roggenkamp defeated a member of the No. 6 team in the country in singles, going 2-0 in singles and 1-0 in doubles this weekend. Missouri-Kansas City's Marc Santamaria went 2-0 in singles and 1-1 in doubles over the weekend to help UMKC roll past Omaha 7-0, and drop a contest at Nebraska 6-1, scoring the first point against the Huskers for UMKC since 2000. Against Omaha, he defeated Ignace Warson at the No. 6 position in convincing fashion, 6-1, 6-2, before partnering with Amaury Navette in No. 3 doubles for a 6-3 victory. He also upset Scott Elsass at the No. 6 position on Sunday against Nebraska, taking a straight-set 6-3, 6-4 victory.
Other women's nominees: Seattle U's Michelle Lui won 4 of 6 matches in hectic weekend for Redhawks, winning most singles victories for the team. She won all 5 matches with partner Kelli Woodman to finish (out of 6) in doubles play.