Full Releases in PDF Format: Men / Women
WAC PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Missouri-Kansas City's Airam Castellano and UT Rio Grande Valley's Dominique Ibarra have been named Western Athletic Conference Tennis Players of the Week, respectively, for April 4-10.
Castellano, a sophomore from Gran Canaria, Spain (ES Perez Galdos) played a perfect 3-0 week in both singles and doubles at the WAC Cluster at the No. 1 position, helping UMKC claim a share of the WAC regular season title. He has now won nine straight singles matches, and finished a perfect 5-0 in WAC play this year at No. 1. He started the weekend in singles against NMSU's Strahinja Trecakov, taking a three-set victory, while taking a win in doubles with partner Mike Psarros, helping secure two points in the dual for UMKC. The next day, he defeated reigning WAC Player of the Year Juan Cruz Soria in straight sets to help UMKC to a 5-2 victory in the match, also winning in a tiebreak in doubles. The final day, he helped the Roos get out to a big lead against GCU, taking out Mitch Maroscher in straight sets in singles, before coming up big in doubles with Psarros at the end of the day to grab a 7-5 victory, the first needed to clinch the doubles point and the match to claim a share of the crown. He now has a school record 23 victories this season, shattering the single-season record of 19 at UMKC.
Ibarra, a freshman from Barcelona, Spain (Lleo XIII) went 1-0 in singles and 2-0 in doubles last weekend. She defeated Dallas Baptist's Madeline Coffman 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 at the No. 4 spot. Ibarra led one set to none in her other singles match of the weekend as she took the first set against UTEP's Daphne Visscher but the match went unfinished. In doubles, Ibarra teamed with Doris Aleksovska to record a pair of wins after defeating Dallas Baptist's team of Bianca Tijerina and Madeline Coffman 6-3 and then they closed out their weekend with a 6-2 win over UTEP's Visscher and Maria Paula Medina.
Other men's nominees: NM State's Mauri Benitez came in the clutch on Saturday for NM State, rallying from being down one set to win his next two to help the Aggies finish the weekend 2-0. That win allowed the Aggies to earn a share of the regular-season title for the first time in program history since joining the WAC. Benitez also cruised to a 6-2, 6-2 win on Friday in singles against UMKC's Vinh Phan. The Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain, product also won his doubles match against the 'Roos 6-2 with fellow freshman Enrique Asmar. The two won by default on Saturday over the Cougars in doubles. UT Rio Grande Valley's Elliot Johnstone went 2-0 in singles and 2-1 in doubles over the weekend. He defeated Chicago State's Rohan Wattley 6-1, 6-4 on Friday and then defeated Missouri-Kansas City's Mike Psarros 6-7, 6-1, 10-2 for his fourth straight win. With his two wins to close out the regular season, Johnstone has improved to 13-7 in singles, which ranks second on the team in wins. In doubles, Johnstone partnered with Andres Hernandez to pick up a 7-6 win over Wattley and Felix Savard, which was their fifth win of the season as a team.
Other women's nominees: Chicago State's Marnie Perez-Ochoa concluded the regular season with a bang in her final home match yesterday against Oral Roberts by winning her fifth consecutive singles match since March 29th. She came back from losing 6-2 in the first set of her No. 4 singles match against Brenda Mercado Joye before winning 6-0 and 7-5 in the final two sets. The win improved her record to a perfect 5-0 at the No. 4 flight this season.
CHICAGO STATE
Chicago State men's tennis concluded its Western Athletic Conference regular-season slate here this weekend with a pair of matches at the Plaza Tennis Center on the campus of Missouri-Kansas City. The Cougars dropped a 5-2 decision to defending WAC Champion New Mexico State and closed out the weekend with a 6-1 loss to Seattle. CSU captured an early 1-0 advantage in the NMSU match after winning the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles matches. Chicago State women's tennis closed out its regular season schedule here by falling to visiting Oral Roberts by a close 4-3 margin today at the H-F Racquet and Fitness Club.
GRAND CANYON
The Grand Canyon men's tennis team couldn't have asked for a better start to its final weekend in the Western Athletic Conference with a 7-0 sweep over Seattle U. With the win over Seattle, the Lopes are in prime position to claim its first WAC title, currently at 4-0 in the conference. They set themselves up to claim its first ever Western Athletic Conference title after going into Sunday's match against Missouri-Kansas City unbeaten in conference. The Lopes picked up three wins in singles play against the Roos but UMKC was able to prevail with a tight 4-3 win over GCU. Despite the loss, GCU has earned a share of the WAC regular season title along with UMKC and New Mexico State.
MISSOURI-KANSAS CITY
The UMKC men's tennis team led for much of the day, but in the end a pair of three-set matches went for New Mexico State, resulting in a 4-3 Aggie victory on Friday at the Plaza Tennis Center. UMKC men's tennis jumped out early and never looked back on Saturday at the Plaza Tennis Center, taking a 5-2 victory over UTRGV. The final WAC match of the weekend had everything; comebacks, intensity, and drama-filled points. UMKC men's tennis claimed a share of its fifth conference regular season title under head coach Kendell Hale, winning a down-to-the wire 4-3 battle against previously undefeated Grand Canyon on Sunday afternoon. The UMKC women's tennis squad fell behind early, and then made a valiant comeback attempt on Tuesday at the Plaza Tennis Center, but it the end it fell just short in a 4-3 loss to South Dakota State. Creighton started hot and clinched the match early on Saturday afternoon against UMKC, taking a 5-2 victory.
NM STATE
The NM State men's tennis team outslugged UMKC on Friday at the Plaza Tennis Center and picked up the 4-3 win on a very windy afternoon. They wrapped up Western Athletic Conference play on Saturday with a 5-2 win over Chicago State in a neutral site match.
SEATTLE U
Seattle University men's tennis (8-14, 0-4 WAC) fell behind early after doubles play and Grand Canyon (12-6, 4-0 WAC) would earn six straight singles victories for the 7-0 win in Western Athletic Conference play. They ended regular season Western Athletic Conference play on a high note with a 6-1 win vs. Chicago State (2-19, 0-5 WAC) in Kansas City, Mo.
UT RIO GRANDE VALLEY
The Vaquero men closed out their season at the second WAC cluster as they split their pair of matches. They defeated Chicago State 6-1 on Friday and then fell to Missouri-Kansas City 2-5 on Saturday. The Vaqueros finished with four in double figure singles wins as Juan Cruz Soria led the way with a team-leading 14 singles wins while Elliot Johnstone added 14, Koby Jansen had 11 and Yehonatan Kaufman had 10. They now prepare for the WAC Championships that they will be hosting on April 29-May 1 at the Brownsville Tennis Center. The Vaquero women went 1-1 on the weekend after defeating Dallas Baptist University 6-1 on Friday and then falling to UTEP 0-4 on Saturday. Senior Reegan Greenwood moved into fourth place in the program's all-time career singles win list with a win in the match against Dallas Baptist as she now has 51 career wins. The Vaqueros have two more matches to close out their regular as they face Texas State on April 15 and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on April 17.
3-WAY TIE FOR MEN'S REGULAR SEASON TITLE
Grand Canyon, NM State and Missouri-Kansas City tied for the WAC Regular Season Title with all teams going 4 and 1 in conference play. Although Grand Canyon is not eligible for postseason competition, they are not excluded from the regular season standings, which are used to determine the WAC tournament seeds. Because Grand Canyon, UMKC and New Mexico State all concluded WAC play with a 4-1 record, a tiebreaker was necessary. Following the policy from the WAC Code Book, we used head-to-head competition first. Because that three-way tie cannot be broken, the next tiebreaker is ITA rankings. Based on these rankings, the men's tournament seeds are as follows:
1. UMKC
2. NM State
3. UTRGV
4. Seattle U
5. Chicago State
NM STATE WOMEN OUTRIGHT CLINCH REGULAR SEASON TITLE
The Aggie women captured their first regular-season WAC title as Lindsay Harlas, a Las Cruces native clinched the match for NM State beating Seattle U 6-1. With the regular-season championship in sight, NM State reeled off five-straight wins in singles action to notch its eight-straight victory. The last time NM State won eight-straight matches dated back to the 2002 season when it won 13-straight. The Aggies only recorded eight-straight victories two other times in program history (1996, 2000).
Women's Tournament Seeding
There were no ties on the women's side, so the seeding for the tournament is as follows:
1. NM State
2. UTRGV
3. UMKC
4. Seattle U
5. Chicago State
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.
April 29-May 1
Location: Brownsville, Texas
Host: Texas Rio Grande Valley
Admission: Free
2016 USTA/ITA REGIONALS
The USTA/ITA Regional Championships will feature some of the top men's and women's players across the country. Over 8,000 student-athletes from NCAA Division I, II, III, NAIA, Junior and Community Colleges compete across 85 USTA/ITA Regional Championships around the country.
Region/Host
Midwest: Notre Dame
Mountain: New Mexico
Northeast: Yale
South: Alabama
Central: Arkansas
Southeast: Florida
Northwest: Washington
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS - The 2016 Tennis National Championships will take place in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center. Tulsa will be the host May 19-30.
May 19-30
Location: Tulsa, Okla.
Host: Tulsa
Admission: Free