DENVER - Chicago State's Gabriel Niculescu and Seattle U's Kelli Woodman have been named Western Athletic Conference Tennis Players of the Week, respectively, for March 28 - April 3.
Niculescu, a freshman from Bucharest, Romania played number 1 singles and defeated DePaul's Sten Leusink 6-3,4-6, 10-7. This is the first time in CSU history that a men's tennis player defeated a power conference school at number 1 singles. On Sunday against number #51 Notre Dame, Gabriel picked up wins in Singles and Doubles. Gabriel teamed with partner Christian Gonzalez to defeat Notre Dame's Grayson Broadus and Nathan Griffin 6-4. Gabriel continued his winning ways in singles to defeat Kenny Sabacinski 6-4, 5-7, 14-12. This is also first time is CSU History that a player has picked up an individual singles and doubles win against an ITA top 75-ranked team.
Woodman, a junior from Denver, Colo. (Cherry Creek HS) was the only Redhawk to win all four singles matches this week, earning SU's only team point vs. CSU Fullerton and NM State. With partner Michelle Lui, she won all three doubles matches to finish after the match vs. CSU Fullerton remained unfinished. Now on a team-leading 4 match singles winning streak and has won 8 of her last 10 singles matches.
Other men's nominees: UT Rio Grande Valley's Elliot Johnstone went 2-0 over last week after defeating Laredo Community College's Victor Bravo 6-2, 6-2 on court four. He then teamed with Andres Hernandez to pick up a doubles win over Osni Junior and Bravo on court two. Johnstone now improves to 11-7 on the season in singles.
Other women's nominees: Chicago State's Marnie Perez-Ochoa went 7-1 between singles and doubles play. The only bump in the road was a 6-2 loss in doubles to Seattle U's Carey/Maloney. Grand Canyon's Lana Rinaldi helped the Lopes earn two wins at the WAC cluster over the weekend, picking up wins over UTRGV and UMKC. Against the Vaqueros, Rinaldi pulled out the 6-0, 7-5 win in singles. Against UMKC, she started doubles with a 6-3 win on court 3 and was dominant on court 5 in a 6-2, 6-1 singles victory. NM State's Ashvarya Shrivastav had an excellent weekend on the courts this past weekend, going 3-0 at No. 1 singles and 2-1 at No. 2 doubles. Shrivastav's stout play also guided NM State to its first Western Athletic Conference regular-season championship as the Aggies went undefeated in league play. Shrivastav has now won eight of her last night matches, including a five-straight victories in singles play at weekend's end. The only blemish to her weekend was a very close 7-6 loss to Chicago State's No. 2 doubles pair. The senior won her matches in doubles playing with two different teammates, both of whom she has not played with all year. UT Rio Grande Valley's Natacha Minc went 3-1 in singles and 2-2 in doubles last week. She defeated Valparaiso's Meg Modesto 4-6, 6-0, 6-0 to start her weekend. She then picked up a 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over Seattle U's Madison Maloney to clinch the win for the Vaqueros in their final conference match of the season. Minc then closed out her weekend with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Laredo Community College's Sheerly Bueno to improve to 8-7 on the season. In doubles, she teamed with Doris Aleksovska to pick up a pair of wins. They defeated Valparaiso's Meg Modesto and Randi Wind 6-4 and then they closed out their weekend with a 7-5 win over Laredo Community College's Lorena Marruffo and Eileen Gallegos.