Texas Border Business
EDINBURG, Texas – The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) announced on Tuesday that The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) men’s tennis junior Emilien Burnel has been selected as the TicketSmarter WAC Men’s Tennis Singles Player of the Week.
Burnel went 2-0 in the No. 1 singles flight as UTRGV competed in the Louisiana Winter Classic in Lafayette. He dominated his first match against Tyler Junior College’s Diego Dalisay, the No. 2 ranked singles player in JUCO by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA), to take a 6-2, 6-1 win. He swiftly defeated Dakotah Bobo from Southern Miss 6-0, 6-4 to close the weekend. Burnel is 4-4 in singles this spring and 8-6 overall.
This marks two consecutive weeks that a Vaqueros men’s tennis student-athlete has won the singles award (senior Chris Lawrance on Jan. 31). It’s the first spring singles honor for Burnel, who earned WAC Doubles Player of the Week recognition with sophomore Sam Whitehead on Jan. 24. In the fall season, Burnel was named the WAC Singles Player of the Month after a fantastic start to his UTRGV career in September and WAC Doubles Player of the Month for October with sophomore Borna Devald.
Burnel and the Vaqueros (3-5) will face Texas Tech on Sunday at 10 a.m. in Lubbock.
