UC Riverside freshman Andreas Whelan-Merediz had an outstanding trip to the east coast and was pegged the Big West Men’s Tennis Athlete of the Week.

• The first career weekly honor for the Highlander rookie came after a 7-0 performance in singles on a whirlwind tour of the east, in which the team played seven matches over four days in the states of North Carolina and Virginia.

• Whelan-Merediz won all seven of his matches in straight sets, mostly at the No. 5 position. He moved up to No. 4 for his 6-4, 6-2 win over Hampton’s Charles Hudson.

• He also picked up three doubles victories with partner Kyle McCann as the Highlanders finished 6-1 on the road trip.

• Whelan-Merediz began the trip with a 6-0, 6-2 win over North Carolina A&T’s Jordan Lawrence. He also won 6-2, 6-1 against Shaw’s Destiny Udofe.
 

Others nominated: Antoine Noel (Cal Poly); Arjith Jayaraman (UC Davis); Daniel Gealer (UC Irvine); Nicolas Moreno de Alboran (UC Santa Barbara)

UC Davis sophomore Sara Tsukamoto garnered Big West Women’s Tennis Athlete of the Week accolades after going 3-1 in singles and 2-2 in doubles.

• Tsukamoto won impressively at No. 2 singles in straight sets, defeating Montana’s Lauren Dunlap (6-3, 6-0), UC San Diego’s Alexandra Weil (6-4, 6-1) and Sacramento State’s Jayden Nielsen (6-2, 6-3).

• Her only setback came to nationally ranked No. 47 Melissa Lord of Stanford.

• In doubles, Tsukamoto partnered with Kelsie Bryant to post wins against the Triton duo of Ashley Chao and Becky Chou (6-1) and the Hornet tandem of Jenna Dorian and Nielsen (6-4).

• Tsukamoto is now 7-7 overall in singles duals. She helped the Aggies to wins over Montana and Sacramento State.
 

Others nominated: Caisey Lee Emery (Cal State Fullerton); Emma Bardet (Long Beach State); Tiffany Lagarde (UC Santa Barbara); Nikola Dolakova (Hawai‘i)