UNO’s Westkamp, UCA’s Xin take home Southland tennis weekly honors

Westkamp wins both matches vs. UTRGV; Xin off to perfect start in conference play

FRISCO, Texas – New Orleans’ Mats Westkamp and Central Arkansas’ Chunxi Xin are the Southland Conference Men’s and Women’s Tennis Players of the Week, respectively, the league announced Tuesday.

Westkamp continued his strong start to the season, improving to 6-1 in singles play and claiming his fourth win in the last five doubles matches when paired with Austin Vos. Westkamp’s two victories powered the Privateers to a 5-2 win over UTRGV on Sunday. UNO (6-2) is off for the next week until it hosts Northern Illinois at 2 p.m. CT on March 10.

Xin played a vital role in the Bears’ 2-0 start to league play over the weekend. She triumphed in each of her top-line singles contests and won both doubles matches as UCA edged Lamar 5-2 and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 4-3. The Bears (8-5, 2-0 SLC) look to stay perfect when they host New Orleans at 1 p.m. Friday and Nicholls at 11 a.m. Sunday.

Men’s Tennis Player of the Week – Mats Westkamp, New Orleans – Senior – Bonn, Germany
Westkamp cruised to a win at No. 1 singles against UTRGV’s Carlo Izurieta 6-0, 6-2. Westkamp has surrendered just three sets in seven matches at the top flight this season and has won four straight.

Westkamp and Austin Vos topped Izurieta and Alberto Mello 6-4 in doubles action, clinching the doubles point for UNO. The duo has come out on top of four of its last five matches and is 4-3 on the year.

Honorable Mention: Piyush Surendra Salekar, Nicholls; Kyohei Yamanaka, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

Women’s Tennis Player of the Week – Chunxi Xin, Central Arkansas – Sophomore – Baoding, China
Xin and Lamar’s Jasmin Buchta went down to the wire in both sets of their No. 1 singles showdown on Friday with Xin coming out on top 7-6 in each frame. Xin followed it up with a gritty three-set win over A&M-Corpus Christi’s Mariya Shumeika. Xin responded to losing set two 6-1 by reciprocating the score in the final set to come out on top.

Paired with Fuka Nonoyama at No. 1 doubles, Xin and Nonoyama defeated their Lamar counterparts 6-3 and their Islander opponents 6-1. Xin has now won five in a row at the No. 1 (7-3) and nine straight at the top doubles spot with Nonoyama (10-2).

Honorable Mention: Emma Honore, A&M-Corpus Christi; Nini Memishishi, Abilene Christian; Ank Vullings, New Orleans.

Southland weekly award winners are nominated and voted upon by each school’s sports information director. Voting for one’s own athlete is not permitted. To earn honorable mention, a student-athlete must appear on at least 25 percent of ballots.