DENVER - Grand Canyon's singles player Lucas Grego and Kansas City's singles player Aliona Ladutska, and Chicago State's doubles team Christian Gonzalez and Felix Savard and UT Rio Grande Valley's doubles team Marine Darzyan and Dominique Ibarra have been named the Western Athletic Conference Tennis Players of the Week, respectively, for Feb. 26-March 4.
Grego, a freshman from Longwy, France, won all three of his singles this past weekend. He flipped the script as he went into the tournament losing his last four singles matches. To begin the three match winning streak, Grego took down the fifth seeded Lamar competitor 6-3, 6-4. He then road the victory to the next match the same day as he also defeated Brown's fifth flight 6-1, 6-2. Grego continued his winning ways the next day as he was triumphant over Wichita State's fifth flight 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.
Ladutska, a senior from Minsk, Belarus, battled Nebraska's top athlete to 5-6 before the match went unfinished due to Nebraska already clinching the win. The following day, she defeated Illinois State's top competitor, 6-4, 6-2 to claim one of Kansas City's three points in the 4-3 loss.
Gonzalez, a senior from Mungia, Spain, and teammate Savard, a junior from Laval, Quebec, captured wins in two of their three matches as the top flight las week. After falling at IUPUI by a 6-1 margin, the dup bounced back with a close 6-4 victory over UIC's top duo to open a home doubleheader on Saturday. They finished off the week with a 6-2 win against Roosevelt's duo. With the two wins, the pair improved their record to 14-6 overall and 10-2 in dual matches.
Darzyan, a junior from Volgogrod, Russia, and partner Ibarra, a junior from Barcelona, Spain, picked up a 6-0 win over Texas A&M- Corpus Christi's top duo. The victory helped clinch the doubles point for the fourth straight match and helped defeat the Islander's for the first time since 2007.
Other male singles nominees: Chicago State's Christian Gonzalez won three matches in a row, including a 6-3, 6-4 victory over IUPUI's fifth flight, a 6-4, 6-3 outcome with UIC's fourth flight and broke the school record career wins with the 6-0, 6-3 victory over Roosevelt's fourth flight… Kansas City's Alex Pozo went 1-1 against Arkansas's second flight as he dropped the first showing 4-6, 7-6, 6-3 but won the second time he faced him 2-6, 7-6, 10-7… NM State's Louis Menard was the sixth flight throughout the weekend as he went unfinished with DePaul's competitor 6-2, 5-5 and defeated both UTSA's (6-1, 6-2) and Texas A&M- Corpus Christi's (6-1, 7-5) athletes. Seattle U's Colton Weeldreyer was the only one of two Redhawks to win a singles match and he did it in the second flight 3-6, 6-3, 6-2… UT Rio Grande Valley's Elliot Johnstone was downed by Texas A&M- Corpus Christi's third flight 2-6, 6-2, 4-6 and bounced back as the fourth flight for two victories against South Alabama 6-3, 6-4 and Troy 6-1, 6-2.
Other female singles nominee: UT Rio Grande Valley's Dominique Ibarra defeated Texas A&M- Corpus Christi's third best competitor 6-2, 6-3.
Other male doubles nominees: NM State's Stijnde Haan/Mauri Benitez defeated DePaul's second flight 6-3 for the only win in doubles for the Aggies… Seattle U's Arshak Ghazaryan/Emilio Monroy defeated a tough Portland State's second flight dup 6-3.
Other female doubles nominees: Kansas City's Ioanna Lathouri/Katie Fries paired together as the third flight as they fell 6-1 to Nebraska and bounced back to win 6-1 against Illinois State.