(Release courtesy of Matt Higgins, MIAC Assistant Executive Director)
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – Gustavus Adolphus College men’s and women’s tennis players Andres Saenz (Sr., Cancun, Mexico) and Katie Aney (So., Rochester, Minn.) were honored by the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference as the league’s tennis athletes of the week as chosen by the league’s sports information directors on Tuesday.
Saenz
The 19th-ranked Gustavus men’s tennis team had a big weekend against nationally-ranked teams, and Andres Saenz certainly rose to the occasion. The Gustie senior went a combined 4-0 over the weekend – 2-0 at No. 2 singles and 2-0 at No. 1 doubles – as his team split with No. 16 UW-Whitewater and No. 34 DePauw. For his performance, the MIAC sports information directors honored Saenz Tuesday with the MIAC Men’s Tennis Athlete-of-the-Week award.
Saturday, Saenz nearly led his team to a win over No. 16-ranked UW-Whitewater, as he accounted for half the team’s wins in a narrow 5-4 loss. The senior battled back for a remarkable 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, win at No. 2 singles and helped the top doubles team defeat the nation’s No. 7-ranked tandem 8-4. A day later, he led Gustavus to a 7-2 win over No. 34-ranked DePauw with a straight-set (6-2, 6-3) win at No. 2 singles and an 8-2 victory at No. 1 doubles. Saenz is now 8-0 in singles play and 7-1 in doubles play this season, and he’s currently the No. 14-ranked singles player and a member of the No. 4-ranked doubles team in the ITA Central Region.
Thanks to the split, the Gusties are now 11-1 overall and 5-0 to share first place in the MIAC standings with Carleton (7-2, 3-0 MIAC), and the team is ranked fifth in the region and 19th in the nation by the ITA. Saenz and company will head to California this weekend to compete in the Stag-Hen Invitational at Pomona-Pitzer College in Pomona, Calif. Gustavus opens with the host school Friday at 12 p.m. central time, and will play again Friday at 2:30 p.m. and Saturday at 10 a.m. with opponents to be determined based on tournament outcomes.
Aney
The Gustavus women’s tennis team had three matches and a split squad on Saturday, which saw Katie Aney ascend to the team’s No. 1 singles and doubles positions. The sophomore responded beautifully to the promotion, as she went 3-1 combined to lead the Gusties to a pair of wins over NAIA Morningside and Division II UM-Duluth. For her performance, the MIAC sports information directors honored Aney Tuesday with the MIAC Women’s Tennis Athlete-of-the-Week award.
Aney started her busy Saturday with a 6-3, 6-4, win at No. 1 singles to help her team avenge a 2015 loss to Morningside with a 6-3 victory. Her doubles team suffered an 8-4 setback in Gustavus’ top spot, but that would be her only setback of the day. Later on Saturday, Aney rallied from a one-set deficit to score a thrilling 3-6, 6-4, 10-5, singles win in the No. 1 spot against D-II UMD, and she also helped the Gusties get an 8-2 win at No. 1 doubles en route to an 8-1 victory that also avenged a 2015 loss to the Bulldogs. Aney, who normally plays No. 5 singles and No. 2 doubles, improved to 4-2 in singles play and 3-2 in doubles play this season.
In addition to those two wins, the rest of the Gusties visited Division I Drake and fell 4-0 Saturday, which moved the team’s record to 6-3 overall. Gustavus remains tied atop the MIAC standings with a perfect 3-0 record this season, and the team is tied for the No. 10 ranking in the ITA Central Region. This weekend, the team will head to San Antonio, Texas, where it will play four matches in three days. Saturday, the Gusties face Mary Hardin-Baylor (10 a.m.), Sunday they take on Dallas Baptist (11 a.m.) and Texas Lutheran (2 p.m.), and Monday they’ll face Trinity (10 a.m.).