DENVER – Fresno State’s Rikus de Villiers and Nevada’s Emma Verberne have been named the Verizon Western Athletic Conference Tennis Players of the Week for April 4-10.

A senior from Durban, South Africa, de Villiers helped Fresno State to a perfect 3-0 mark in WAC play last week with wins over No. 56 Hawai‘i (5-2), No. 54 Idaho (4-3) and Utah State (4-0). At No. 1 singles, he went 2-1 on the week, including a come-from-behind win over No. 122 Dennis Lajola of Hawai‘i and a straight-sets win over Utah State’s Sven Poslusny.  In doubles, he and partner Remi Boutillier defeated all three opponents and have now won eight of their last nine matches.

Verberne, a sophomore from Rotterdam, the Netherlands, went undefeated on the week to help Nevada to a perfect 3-0 record with wins over New Mexico State (5-2), Sonoma State (7-0) and an upset of No. 57 Boise State (4-3). In singles, she posted straight-set victories at No. 3 over NM State’s Ginet Pinero and Sonoma State’s Megan White. She also defeated Boise State’s Elyse Edwards, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 at the No. 4 slot. In doubles, she and partner Lais Ogata picked up a pair of wins at the No. 2 spot and rounded out the weekend with the Wolf Pack’s only doubles win against Boise State, where at the No. 1 spot they handed Megale and Marlena Pietzuch their first WAC loss of the season, 9-8 (6).

Other male nominees included: Lachlan Reed, Idaho; Kristian Kuharszky, Nevada; Bryan Marchant, Utah State.

Other female nominees included: Lauren Megale, Boise State; Marianne Jodoin, Fresno State; Elne Barnard, Louisiana Tech; Manon Sylvain, New Mexico State; and Hailey Swenson, Utah State.