DeLand, Fla. ? For the second week in a row, the Stetson men's and women's tennis teams have produced the Atlantic Sun Conference Player of the Week in their respective sports, the conference office announced Wednesday. Freshman Maksim Levanovich (Minsk, Belarus) earned the men's honor while junior Katherine Nowicki (Jacksonville, Fla.) picked up the women's award.
Levanovich went 3-0 in doubles and 2-0 in singles this week as the 64th-ranked Hatters went on the road to beat 72nd-ranked South Alabama and UAB by identical 4-3 scores Friday and Saturday before coming home to defeat Siena 6-1 on Monday. Against #72 USA, Levanovich teamed with junior Mark Mestan (Cologne, Germany) to beat Hanno Bartsch and Dauw Kruger 8-5 in doubles before ripping Aaron Krisan 6-1, 6-1 at #4 singles. Against the Blazers the next day, he and senior Filip Kricka (Umag, Croatia) beat Alex Emery and Dan Cornei 8-4 at #2 doubles; in singles it was Levanovich that provided the match-clinching fourth point with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 win over Dennis Ehrlich at #4 singles. He sat out singles against Siena on Monday but partnered with his third different teammate in as many days, freshman Chris Hyma (Miami, Fla.) for an 8-5 win over Robert Cooperman and Shawn Conroy at #3 doubles.
Nowicki was the key figure in a pair of wins for Hatter Women's Tennis as she combined to go 4-0 in the 7-0 win over Volusia County rival Bethune-Cookman on Thursday and the 5-2 win over Stephen F. Austin on Saturday. Nowicki and junior Breanna Atkinson (Bradenton, Fla.) dominated their doubles opponents all week, beating B-CU's Katarina Szaboova and Stacey Lopez 8-1 and blanking SFA's Jamie Williams and Mary Harrison 8-0. In singles play, Nowicki was a 7-6, 6-4 winner against Valecia Kendrick (Bethune-Cookman) and a 6-1, 7-5 victor against Tatiana Smolnikova (Stephen F. Austin). Both wins came in the #4 slot.
This is the second week in a row that Hatters have earned both league tennis awards; Mestan and junior Valentina Galbarini (Montevideo, Uruguay) earned accolades for their roles in dual 7-0 sweeps against A-Sun foe Florida Gulf Coast.
The men and women each host Florida Atlantic at the Mandy Stoll Tennis Center on Saturday; the women's match begins at 10 a.m. while the men will play at 3 p.m. Stetson men's tennis Head Coach Pierre Pilote will be going for his 300th career victory when his Hatters take on the Owls Saturday afternoon.
