March 10, 2009

FRISCO, Texas - UT Arlington sophomore Nikola Matovivoa has been named the Southland Conference's women's tennis player of the week, the league office announced Tuesday.

A native of Bratislava, Slovakia, Matovivoa led her team to a pair of conference victories against McNeese State and Lamar. The Mavericks' newcomer posted four wins in the two matches, two in singles play and two in doubles. On Saturday against the Cowgirls, Matovivoa teamed up with Maria Martinez-Romer to post an 8-6 victory over Petra Gedelj and Maria Frausto in the No. 2 match and later added a 6-2, 6-2 win against Maria Frausto in No. 5 singles.

A day later the Mavericks were back in action against the Lady Cardinals, and Matovivoa kept up her hot streak. In doubles action, she again paired up with Martinez-Romer, and the duo notched an 8-6 victory over Manijee Ashrafi and Salina Aranda. In singles she had another win in straight sets against Aranda 6-4, 6-2.

Matovivoa becomes the second Maverick to earn player of the week honors. Teammate Monika Hadvigerova won the award Feb. 17.

Honorable mention for this week's women's award goes to Texas State junior Saskia Kruse, UTSA junior Holly Phillips and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi freshman Mirna Cicak. A student-athlete must receive 25-percent of the votes from the league's SIDs in order to qualify for honorable mention.

Each school's SID nominates and votes for the players of the week, though is not permitted to vote for his or her own player.