Seniors Alex Golding of Pacific and Kristina Smith of UC Irvine anchored the top spot in the lineup effectively as their play helped their teams win key Big West contests, and led to their selections as the Big West Men's and Women's Tennis Athletes of the Week.
Golding Clinches Big West Battle Against Hawai`i
Pacific senior Alex Golding (London, England/Utah) fought off three match points to win his singles showdown against Haw
ai`i and clinch a hard fought 4-3 battle against the Warriors, earning him Big West Men's Tennis Athlete of the Week recognition.
Golding squared off against UH No. 1 singles counterpart Jonathan Brooklyn in a three-set thriller with the match tied 3-3. Golding dropped the first set, 6-4, and faced a second set deficit to boot. However, he saved three match points to take the second set, 7-5, and cruised to a 6-2 third set victory to punctuate the Tigers' trip to the islands.
Golding also partnered with Sem Verbeek to snatch away a closely contested 9-7 decision from the UH No. 1 doubles duo of Brooklyn and Dmytro Kovalyov.
The Tigers took on No. 66 San Diego State in a neutral court match in Honolulu. Although Pacific ended up on the losing end of a 4-3 decision, Golding and Verbeek helped the Tigers clinch the doubles point when they won 8-5 over the Aztec tandem of Thorsten Bertsch and Hunter Nicholas.
Golding's only setback for the week came against a tough customer in No. 104-ranked Derek Siddiqui. The SDSU top player came out ahead, but not before Golding pressed him in a tight second set, eventually losing 6-2, 7-5.
Others nominated: Mbonisi Ndimande (UC Santa Barbara); Chas Okamoto (Hawai`i); Alex Golding (Pacific)
Smith Helps UC Irvine Knock Off Ranked Foe
UC Irvine senior Kristina Smith (Laguna Niguel, Calif./Dana Hills HS) notched Big West Women's Tennis Athlete of the Week honors after defeating a nationally ranked opponent and a conference foe.
Smith, who plays No. 1 singles and doubles for the Anteaters, won both singles matches and split at No. 1 doubles with partner Franziska Goettsching as UCI downed No. 46 LSU (4-3) and Cal Poly (6-1).
She improved to 4-3 on the season at No. 1 singles with the pair of wins. With the Anteaters trailing LSU 2-0, Smith got her side on the board with a hard fought 7-6 (6), 6-3 win against No. 112 Kaitlin Burns. That began a string of four straight singles win as No. 59 UCI completed the upset of the higher ranked opponent.
In UCI's Big West opener against Cal Poly, Smith rolled to a 6-1, 6-0 victory against freshman counterpart Louise Oxnevad in a 6-1 team victory. Smith and Goettsching, who entered the Intercollegiate Tennis Association national rankings at No. 40, battled to an 8-5 triumph against the Mustang duo of Oxnevad and Alexa Lee.
Others nominated: Alexa Lee (Cal Poly); Megan Sandford (Cal State Fullerton); Anne-Sophie Willems (Long Beach State); Katarina Poljakova (Hawai`i); Gergana Boncheva (Pacific)