Pacific's Starke Wins Weekly Honor For Third Time

Pacific junior Moritz Starke (Bamberg, Germany/Forsyth County DS) earned Big West Men's Tennis Athlete of the Week honors for the third time this season after winning all four of his singles and doubles matches.

Despite the Tigers losing a pair of matches to San Francisco (4-3) and No. 70 UC Irvine (5-2), Starke got his team in the scoring column on both occasions.  He posted a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 win over the Dons' Thong Tu last Wednesday.  Against Anteater Alex Sundling, Starke won 6-4, 6-4 to improve his record at the No. 1 singles position to 10-5 on the year.

Teaming with Renan Delsin, Starke won both of his doubles contests as well.  The duo rolled to an 8-4 win over USF's Falko Huttenberger and Asaf Cohen and then followed up with an 8-3 triumph against UCI's Ajay Ahluwalia and Victor Lamm.

Starke's record at No. 1 doubles is now 7-4 on the season.

UC Irvine's Bernhard Wraps Up Third Straight Award

Senior Becky Bernhard (Roseville, Calif./Oakmont HS) continued to roll for UC Irvine, winning her eighth and ninth consecutive matches at No. 1 singles to collect her third straight Big West Women's Tennis Athlete of the Week honor.

It was the Big West record 12th Athlete of the Week honor of her career.

To earn the award, Bernhard got past a pair of foes from New Mexico State and No. 18-ranked Pepperdine.  She defeated Sophia Marks of NMSU, 6-3, 4-6, 10-2 in helping her team to the 6-1 victory.  Bernhard then outlasted Sylvia Kosakowski, the No. 77-ranked player in the nation, beating the Wave 6-0, 4-6, 10-5 to pick up the Anteaters lone point in their 6-1 loss.

Bernhard and partner Inna Agababian split their doubles contests for the week.  They beat the Aggie duo of Marks and Aleksa Costa 8-5 before falling to the nation’s 10th-ranked doubles tandem - Sylvia Kosakowski and Bianca Dulgheru, 8-3.

Bernhard, who started the season losing eight of her first 10 singles matches, is now 11-8 on the season.