RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) announced on Wednesday that The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) men’s tennis junior Emilien Burnel has been selected as the TicketSmarter WAC Men’s Tennis Singles Player of the Month after a stellar start to his UTRGV career in September.
Burnel went 3-0 in singles at UTRGV’s first tournament of the fall season to claim the Singles D Draw Championship at the highly competitive Roadrunner Invitational. First, he picked up a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi’s Tomas Quesada Perez on Sept. 23. He defeated Gustavo Pinho from Oral Roberts in a grueling come-from-behind effort on Sept. 24, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (4), 7-5. In a battle of unbeaten players on Sept. 25, Burnel bested UTSA’s Garrett Skelly 7-5, 6-2 to win the draw.
Burnel was also named UTRGV’s Student-Athlete of the Week following the tournament. He earned five total wins in his first six matches with the Vaqueros as he and sophomore Sam Whitehead went 2-1 in doubles with wins over teams from Abilene Christian and Oral Roberts.
New Mexico State’s Roko Stipetic and Corey Clarke were named WAC Men’s Tennis Doubles Players of the Month for September.
Next up for Burnel and the Vaqueros is the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Regional Championship from Oct. 13-17 in Waco.
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