Brotman Collects Second Consecutive Men's Tennis Honor
UC Santa Barbara senior Nick Brotman (Toronto, Canada) earned the nod as Big West Men's Tennis Athlete of the Week for the second week in a row. Brotman won all four of his matches at No. 1 singles, helping the Gauchos to a 3-1 week.
Brotman began the week with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Santa Clara's Jan Macek in leading the Gauchos to the 5-2 team victory over the Broncos on Wednesday. Against No. 75 Harvard in a 6-1 loss the next day, Brotman was the only Gaucho to earn a point with his 7-6, 6-2 victory over Ashwin Kumar. He kept the momentum going in a Big West match against Pacific on Saturday, defeating Jorgen Vestli 6-7, 6-2, 10-3. The Gauchos blanked the Tigers 7-0.
In his final appearance of the week, Brotman dropped the first set but rebounded to win the final two sets and topple Jayce Fitch of UC Davis 4-6, 6-3, 6-0. The Gauchos breezed to the 6-1 team victory over the Aggies.
At No. 1 doubles, Brotman teamed with Anders Dalskov to win all four of their matches as well. The closest matches occurred against opposition from Harvard and Pacific, as the duo defeated the Crimson's Brandon Chiu and Kumar and the Tigers' Vestli and Tim Koniarski by an identical 8-6 score.
Agababian Leads UC Irvine to Spring Invitational Title
UC Irvine sophomore Inna Agababian (San Francisco, CA) captured Big West Women's Tennis Athlete of the Week honors after posting a 3-0 record at No. 1 and No. 2 singles while leading her team to the championship of the 9th Annual UCI Spring Invitational.
The 53rd-ranked Anteaters downed San Francisco (5-2), Montana (7-0) and Nevada (4-0) over the two-day event. Agababian defeated USF's Emma Taylor 6-4, 7-6 at No. 2 singles, then moved up to the No. 1 position and breezed past Montana's Liz Walker 6-3, 6-0. In the championship match, Agababian moved back to her customary No. 2 slot and rolled to a 6-2, 6-1 win over the Wolf Pack's Fiorella Velez.
Agababian teamed with Jayme Hu at No. 1 doubles to defeat San Francisco's Camille Pamart and Joana Macedo 8-4. The only setback of the week came to the Lady Griz duo of Walker and Mari Castello, as Agababian and Hu were defeated in a tight 9-8 (4) contest.