Full Releases in PDF Format: Men / Women
WAC PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Missouri-Kansas City's Mike Psarros and Seattle U's Kristen James have been named Western Athletic Conference Tennis Players of the Week, respectively, for Feb. 22-28.
Psarros, a junior from Athens, Greece was a perfect 2-0 in both singles and doubles, helping the Roos post a 1-1 record in a trip to California, including a narrow 4-3 loss to No. 72 Santa Clara on Saturday. Psarros and partner Airam Castellano won 7-5 at No. 1 doubles against the Broncos, before he took a come from behind victory at the No. 4 spot in singles over Connor Garnett. Against UC-Santa Cruz, he and Castellano took a 6-2 win in doubles, before he rolled in singles play over Ryan Dugan by 6-2, 6-4 scores. He moved up to 39 doubles wins in his career over the weekend, putting him in a tie for eighth in school history.
James, a senior from Lubbock, Texas (Lubbock HS) won both singles matches on the weekend as well as her only double match to finish with partner Sari Kwee as the Redhawks swept matches vs. Northern Colorado and Portland State.
CHICAGO STATE
Chicago State women's tennis opened up the weekend with at win over Bowling Green, 4-3.
GRAND CANYON
The Grand Canyon men's tennis team made it two wins in-a-row after defeating Montana 4-3. The Lopes had to mount a comeback but behind four wins in singles play, GCU picked up its sixth win of the season. The Grand Canyon men's tennis are riding high after capping off a four-match homestand with a win over Air Force. GCU went 5-1 in singles to take down the Falcons 5-2 to make it three wins in a row. GCU is now 7-4 this season. The win caps off a 3-1 homestand for the Lopes as they now take a week off from play before heading to New Mexico to compete in the Mountain Pacific Challenge.
MISSOURI-KANSAS CITY
UMKC men's tennis came within a tibreak in No. 2 doubles of upsetting No. 72 Santa Clara on the road Saturday afternoon, but fell 4-3. UMKC proved to have too much depth on Sunday against UC-Santa Cruz, taking a 6-1 victory in the final match of a road swing to California. UMKC women's tennis dropped a 7-0 dual to No. 55 Oklahoma on Sunday morning at the KC Raquet Club, but picked up a doubles win in the match. UMKC will hit the road for a dual at Wichita State on Thursday.
NM STATE
The New Mexico State men's tennis team was blanked on Saturday at the Linda Estes Tennis Center in a neutral site match against No. 53 Utah, 7-0. New Mexico State will have a couple weeks to rest and practice before heading to Albuquerque again from March 11-12, where they'll be playing in the UNM Invitational. The NM State women's tennis team dropped a heartbreaker on Friday to Wyoming at the NMSU Tennis Center, 4-3. The match went wire-to-wire and needed to go to the third set of the sixth singles match. New Mexico State's women's tennis team couldn't contain Northern Arizona on Sunday afternoon, falling to the Lumberjacks 4-0 at the NMSU Tennis Center. The Aggies will host the final match of their homestand next Saturday, March 5, against I-10 rival UTEP at noon.
SEATTLE U
John Stormans clinched the match for the Redhawks at No. 2 singles, also part of the only Redhawk pair to win a doubles match vs. Whitman (with partner Connor Leahy) … Stormans has won his last two singles matches and three of his last five while he and partner Connor Leahy are on a six-match winning streak in doubles … Ian Clare won his first singles match on Feb. 27 of the spring season … Jeremiah Kalmus has won three of his last four singles matches played … Connor Leahy has won six of his last seven singles matches, including on Saturday vs. Whitman … Brian Nguyen made his first appearance of spring in doubles vs. Whitman with partner Jeremiah Kalmus. The Redhawks swept matches vs. Northern Colorado and Portland State … Kristen James won both singles matches while she and partner Sari Kwee won their doubles match at Portland State … Barbara Carey, Madison Maloney, and Kelli Woodman also won both singles matches this weekend
UT RIO GRANDE VALLEY
The Vaqueros are coming off of a weekend where they picked up a pair of wins as they defeated St. Mary's and St. Edwards 6-1. They beat St. Mary's 6-1 at the Brownsville Tennis Center, site of this year's WAC Tennis Championships. The Vaqueros then returned to the Orville Cox Tennis Center to defeat St. Edwards 4-3. Juan Cruz Soria leads the team with eight singles victories with sophomore Elliot Johnstone recording seven victories and is currently riding a five match win streak. The Vaqueros will next compete at the H-E-B Tournament of Champions starting on Friday. The Vaqueros returned to actions after about a month away from competition. They were scheduled to face the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders this past Friday but the match was cancelled. The Vaqueros then hosted the UTSA Roadrunners at the Orville Cox Tennis Center as they fell 2-5. Freshman Tara Donaho leads the team with a 4-2 singles record on the season. They will next hit the road to face the Prairie View A&M Panthers on March 12.
WAC CHAMPIONSHIP
The 2016 WAC Tennis Championship travels to Brownsville, Texas from April 29th to May 1st. This year's championships will be hosted by Texas Rio Grand Valley. The New Mexico State men will look to repeat a WAC title. The Grand Canyon women won the regular season while New Mexico State won the tournament last season.