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OGDEN, Utah (Jan. 24, 2012) - The Big Sky Conference has selected the tennis Players of the Week for matches played between January 17-23. Weber State’s Nittaya Phonharath is the women’s Player of the Week. Eastern Washington’s James Russell is the men’s Player of the Week.
In Eastern Washington’s season debut against two nationally-ranked opponents, James Russell, a sophomore from Kirkland, Wash., picked up one win in doubles and one in singles.
On Saturday versus No. 62 St. Mary’s, Russell and partner Mario Navarro outlasted Sherif Hamdy and Seif El Sherbini in a tiebreaker at No. 2. The Eagle pair won the match, 9-8 (9-7). The next day against No. 49 Boise State, Russell prevailed in another arduous match at No. 3 singles. Russell knocked off BSU’s Scott Sears, 6-4, 2-6, 1-0 (10-4). Russell was the only Eagle to record a win against the nationally-ranked Broncos. EWU lost 6-1 to No. 62 St. Mary’s and 6-1 to No. 49 Boise State.
Weber State’s Nittaya Phonharath produced two wins for Weber State this past weekend as the Wildcats opened up the 2012 season.
The sophomore from West Valley City, Utah teamed up with Michelle Warwick to earn an 8-7 (3) tiebreak win against Pacific’s team of Julia Hansen and Gergana Boncheva to open the weekend. The win was the lone victory for WSU in a 7-0 sweep by the Tigers.
Phonharath returned later on Friday afternoon to earn the team’s lone point of the week in a 6-1 loss to New Mexico State. She recorded the point with a 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (10-6) win over the Aggies’ Mandy Mallen in the No. 6 singles match.
Weber State lost 7-0 to Pacific, lost 6-1 to New Mexico State and lost 7-0 to No. 36 UNLV.
Others Nominated:
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Krzyzstof Stempien - Idaho State
Prithiv Sivasubramaniam - Montana State
Dominic Bermudez - Northern Arizona
Roman Margoulis - Portland State