TicketSmarter WAC Tennis Athletes of the Month Announced
DENVER– UTRGV men’s singles player Emilien Burnel, women’s doubles team Marjorie Souza and Isabelle Bahr, Tarleton’s Emma Persson and NM State’s men’s doubles team of Roko Stipetic and Corey Clarkehave been named the TicketSmarter Western Athletic Conference Tennis Players of the Month for September.
Burnel, a junior from La Teste-De-Bush, France, went 3-0 in singles to win the D Draw Championship at UTSA’s Roadrunner Invitational, which was a very competitive tournament featuring some of the top teams in the country. It was UTRGV’s first outing of the fall and Burnel’s UTRGV debut. He defeated Tomas Quesada Perez (TAMUCC) 6-1, 6-1; Gustavo Pinho (Oral Roberts) 6-7 (6), 7-6 (4), 7-5 and Garrett Skelly (UTSA) 7-5, 6-2 in the D Draw Final.
Souza, a sophomore from Serra Negra, Brazil, and Bahr, a junior from Redding, Calif., represented UTRGV at the ITA Regional Championships and went 1-1 in doubles. They defeated Lamar’s Jayci Wong/Anna Emma Shasteen 8-1, then fell 8-1 to Rice’s Federicca Trevisan/Saara Orav, the 14th-seeded doubles team.
Persson, a freshman from Bastad, Sweden, went a combined 4-2 in singles across two tournaments, including a Sweet 16 singles main draw run at the ITA Texas Regional Championship in Fort Worth, one of the top fall tournaments of the season. At the ITA Texas Regional Championship, Persson defeated North Texas' Matilde Morais 6-4 3-6 [13-11] and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's Sofia Pinto 7-6(4) 4-6 [11-9] to advance to the Sweet 16 before losing to SMU's Jackie Nylander. Persson avoided the qualifying singles draw based off her impressive Universal Tennis Rating. At the ASU Slam Fest, hosted by San Angelo, Persson went 2-1 in Flight A Singles.
Stipetic , a freshman from Ogulin, Croatia, and Clark, a junior from Laurieton, NSW, Australia, are riding a two-match win streak and concluded the month with three wins across two weekends. The duo picked up their first win at the Wildcat Classic in Tucson, Ariz., when they defeated Grand Canyon’s Jonathan Da Silva and David Wekesa in the consolation semifinals by a score of 7-6 (7-4). The pair then opened the following weekend with a win over Montana State’s tandem of Max Relic and Jacob Huppin (7-5) in the round of 32 of the ITA Bedford Cup in the Mountains.
2022 TicketSmarter WAC Tennis Monthly Awards
WAC Women's Tennis Singles Player of the Month
Emma Persson, Tarleton (September)
WAC Women's Tennis Doubles Players of the Month
Marjorie Souza and Isabelle Bahr, UTRGV (September)
WAC Men's Tennis Singles Player of the Month
Emilien Burnel, UTRGV (September)
WAC Men's Tennis Doubles Players of the Month
Roko Stipetic and Corey Clarke, NM State (September)