OGDEN, Utah-Friday, the Big Sky Conference handed out its individual and team honors for the league’s tennis programs with several Southern Utah and Weber State athletes receiving recognition.
For Southern Utah, men’s tennis players honored included freshman Jonathan Morales, a native of Ontario, Canada, who was named the Big Sky Conference’s freshman of the year. Morales, who finished his first season with a 13-10 record and a 6-5 mark in conference play, spent time as both the Thunderbirds’ #1 and #2 player.
He was named to the Big Sky’s second-team all-singles team and when paired with doubles partner Conor Tordoff of Sheffield, United Kingdom, earned men’s doubles honorable mention status.
The Southern Utah women saw Swedish national Eira Tobrand named as co-freshman of the year as well as a member of the women’s singles All-Big Sky first team.
Her teammate, junior Ghita Nassik, a Moroccan national, was named to the women’s singles honorable mention team.
Tobrand went a solid 19-5 in singles play, as well as 10-1 in conference matches. Tobrand primarily excelled as the Thunderbirds’ #3 player, going 14-2 in this slot. When she was placed in the second slot, she went a respectable 5-2.
Furthermore, Tobrand closed out the season on a 15-match singles winning streak as well for the Thunderbirds.
This represents the first time since 2013 that the Thunderbirds’ women’s program has seen a player make the all-conference first team for singles and the first time in school history, a freshman has been named as freshman of the year.
Nassik also excelled, going 12-11 in singles play and primarily spent the season as the Thunderbirds’ overall #1, going 12-8 in this role, while also posting a 6-5 mark in Big Sky Conference matches.
As for the Weber State men, senior Stefan Cooper and freshman Kris Van Wyk were named to the men’s singles All-Big Sky first team while freshman Michael Van Schoor earned honorable mention status.
Cooper represented the Wildcats as their #1 player all season, posting an 11-10 overall record, including an 8-3 mark in Big Sky Conference matches.
Van Wyk spent all season as the Wildcats’ #2 player, netting a 13-6 overall record and was also 8-3 in league matches.
Van Schoor was both the #5 and #6 at varying points for the Wildcats and went 15-5 overall. He primarily played in conference matches as the #5 and went 9-2 in Big Sky play.
Cooper and Van Wyk were also named as honorable mention all-league for doubles play, which saw them go 9-7 on the season, but only 2-5 in conference play.
The Weber State women were represented by doubles team Pei-Hsuan Kuo and Caitlin Herb, who made all-conference honorable mention.
The pair went 9-11 on the season but a definitively more impressive 7-3 in league play. In all of their matches, Kuo and Herb were Weber State’s #1 doubles squad.
