MWC Weekly Tennis Awards

Utah's Coutts and UNLV's Ortiz-Luis earn honors

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March 2, 2005

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Nick Coutts of Utah and Anne Claire Ortiz-Luis of UNLV have been selected the Mountain West Conference Men's and Women's Tennis Players of the Week, respectively.

Coutts, a junior from Victoria, Canada, plays No. 4 singles and No. 2 doubles for the Utes. He helped Utah earn its first two wins of the season over ranked teams last week as the Utes defeated No. 69 Denver, 5-2, and No. 65 Colorado, 4-3. Coutts earned the deciding point for Utah over Colorado as he won his match at No. 4 singles in a third set tiebreak, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6. He also won his match against Denver, 6-3, 6-3. Coutts teamed with Jason Yap to win both of their doubles matches as well. Utah earned its first ranking of the year this week, as the Utes are No. 72.

Ortiz-Luis, a senior from Fontana, Calif., plays No. 3 and 4 singles and No. 2 doubles for the Lady Rebels. She won all four matches last week as UNLV advanced to the finals of its own Lady Rebel Classic tournament. UNLV defeated Northern Arizona, 7-0, in its first match and upset No. 21 Fresno State, 4-3, before falling to No. 15 Tulane in the final. With the team score knotted at three against Fresno State, Ortiz-Luis at No. 4 singles was the last one on the courts. She won the first set against Courtney Jantz before losing the second set and the first two games of the third set. Ortiz-Luis then won six straight games to win the match, 6-4, 6-7, 6-2, and clinch the upset victory for UNLV. The Lady Rebels jumped to No. 30 in this week's ITA rankings.

Mountain West Conference Tennis Players of the Week:

Jan. 26 - Benedikt Stronk, San Diego State; Emily Kirchem, Colorado State

Feb. 2 - Max Jones, New Mexico; Olga Boulytcheva, BYU

Feb. 9 - Justin Lau, Air Force; Andrea Hermansen, San Diego State

Feb. 16 - Henner Nehles, UNLV; Dasha Zhurin, Colorado State

Feb. 23 - Joel Kielbowicz, UNLV; Nora Quintal, New Mexico

March 2 - Nick Coutts, Utah; Anne Claire Ortiz-Luis, UNLV

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