Courtesy: Boise State

PETUKHOVA NAMED PLAYER OF THE MONTH
Fresno State’s Anastasia Petukhova has been named the Verizon Wireless Western Athletic Conference Tennis Player of the Month for October. This is the first honor of the season and fourth of her career for Petukhova.

A senior from Moscow, Russia, Petukhova won the consolation championship of the ITA All-American. After dropping her first match to No. 8 Irina Falconi of Georgia Tech, she rattled off four straight-set victories, defeating Ariel Ellis of Texas, No. 47 Pichittra Thongdach of Boise State, No. 53 Allison Ramos of USC and No. 11 Yasmin Schnack of UCLA. At the ITA Northwest Regional, she advanced to the Round of 16, where she fell to Mallory Burdette of Stanford. In doubles play, she teamed with Bianca Modoc to advance to the quarterfinals of the regional.

Other nominees included: Pichittra Thongdach of Boise State won the singles and doubles titles at the ITA Mountain Regional ... Idaho’s Barbara Maciocha was the lone Vandal to win at the Mountain Regional … Vivian ten Dolle of Louisiana Tech won her singles and doubles flights at the Stephen F. Austin Invitational … Nevada’s Emma Verbenne finished with a 7-2 singles record and 5-2 doubles mark in October ... Sophia Marks of New Mexico State was 2-2 in singles action and 1-1 in doubles play during October ... Utah State’s Jaclyn West advanced to the final round of the Utah Open in singles and won the doubles competition.

BRONCOS WIN ITA ALL-AMERICAN CONSOLATION TITLE
Boise State’s Pichittra Thongdach and Lauren Megale captured the consolation doubles title at the Riviera ITA All-American Championships. The duo, who rank No. 33 nationally in doubles, rebounded from a first round loss by winning three consolation bracket matches en route to the consolation title. They began their tournament run with a hard fought 8-6 loss to Lauren Lui and Samantha Murray of Northwestern. In back draw competition, the group won matches against Vanja Corovic and Stephanie Davison of Texas (8-5), Anna Redecsi and Selma Salkovic of DePaul (walkover), Tania Mahtani and Mimi Nguyen of Michigan (8-5), and Marta Lesniak and Aleksandra Malyarschikova of SMU (forfeit).

USU’s WEST, SWENSON ADVANCE TO UTAH OPEN FINALS
Utah State freshman Jaclyn West advanced to the final round of the Utah Open where she fell to teammate Hailey Swenson, 6-4, 6-3. West and Swenson also combined to sweep the doubles competition, defeating Weber State’s Elsje Beneke and Caroline Drugge, 8-3, in the final draw.

PETUKHOVA WINS CONSOLATION TITLE AT ITA ALL-AMERICAN
Fresno State senior Anastasia Petukhova won the consolation bracket of the ITA All-American. Along the way she defeated No. 11 Yasmin Schnack of UCLA, No. 47 Pichittra Thongdach of Boise State and No. 53 Allison Ramos of USC.

BSU’S THONGDACH WINS REGIONAL SINGLES, DOUBLES TITLES
Boise State’s Pichittra Thongdach snagged both the singles and doubles titles at the 2009 Wilson/ITA Division I Women’s Mountain Region Championships. In singles, she produced a 6-0 record,  defeating Kristina Nedeltcheva of UNLV 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 in the title match. Teaming with Lauren Megale in doubles, the duo posted a 5-0 record. Thongdach and Megale were to face BYU’s Megan Price and McCall Jones in the doubles final, but the Cougar pair did not show, allowing the Bronco duo to win the title by default.

NEVADA’S VERBENNE MAKING IMMEDIATE IMPACT
Making her collegiate debut, Nevada’s Emma Verbenne had an impressive month of October for the Wolf Pack. At the Cal Nike Invitational, she reached the semifinals of the B Flight with three straight victories to open the tournament. She lost to the eventual flight champion, Cristala Andrews of USC. In doubles play, Verbenne paired with Maria Mizyuk to win a pair of matches in the B Flight and advance to the semifinals. Verbenne and Mizyuk lost to the eventual flight champion in the semis.

At the ITA Mountain Regional, Verbenne won four matches in the main draw, reaching the quarterfinals. After beating opponents from Wyoming, Idaho State, Utah State and Utah, Verbenne fell to top-seed Kristina Doerr of BYU. In doubles play, Verbenne and Mizyuk won three matches and reached the quarterfinals. Along the way, the beat a team from Idaho State and two WAC teams (Idaho and NMSU) before falling to the top-seeded team.

LOUISIANA TECH CLAIMS TOURNAMENT TITLES
Louisiana Tech competed in three tournaments – the Stephen F. Austin Fall Invite, the Collin College Open and the Texas Junior College Apache Invitational – in October.  At the SFA Invite, four of the six Techsters won their first rounds in singles, and the entire team won their first rounds in doubles. In addition, Tech’s No. 1 doubles team won its flight, while the No. 3 team won consolation doubles.

At the Collin College Open, four of six Techsters advanced to the finals, winning three of them. At the TJC Apache Invitational, Tech had four players advance to the semifinals of their flights and a doubles team won the consolation bracket.

WAC IN THE PRESEASON RANKINGS
In the 2009 preseason ITA rankings, the WAC has three singles players ranked. Leading the way at No. 22 is Fresno State’s Anastasia Petukhova, followed by Pichittra Thongdach of Boise State at No. 47. Rounding out the group is Renata Kucerkova of Fresno State at No. 51.

In doubles, Fresno State’s Petukhova and Kucerkova are the top ranked team in the country. Meanwhile, Lauren Megale and Thongdach of Boise State are ranked No. 33.

WAC TOURNAMENT TO BE HELD IN FRESNO
The 2010 WAC Tennis Tournament will be held April 29-May 2 in Fresno, Calif. The Bulldogs, winners of eight-straight WAC Tournament titles, defeated No. 2-seed Boise State, 4-3, in a match that came down to the last point to claim last year’s title.