March 18, 2008

Complete Release in PDF Format

IRVING, Texas - Tulsa's Arnau Brugues is the Conference USA Men's Tennis Player of the Week after going 3-0 in singles play against nationally-ranked opponents. Brugues' efforts helped his team to the Blue/Gray National Collegiate Tennis Classic title and he is riding a five-match winning streak. TU's Thalia Diaz-Barriga is the Women's Tennis Player of the Week. Diaz-Barriga picked up her 10th and 11th singles wins against No. 47 Louisville and league foe No. 70 SMU. Both of her wins came at the No. 2 spot.

MEN'S TENNIS PLAYER OF THE WEEK (3/18)
ARNAU BRUGUES - Tulsa
Jr., Barcelona, Spain (Univ. of Barcelona)
At the Blue/Gray National Collegiate Tennis Classic in Montgomery, Ala., No. 41 Brugues went 3-0 against ranked opponents, leading Tulsa to the 2008 event title. Against No. 30 Notre Dame in the second round, Brugues defeated No. 17 Brett Helgeson, 6-4, 6-3. In the semifinals againts No. 65 Penn State, Brugues downed No. 62 Michael James, 6-4, 6-2. In the finals against No. 25 Texas Tech, Brugues beat No. 35 Bojan Szumanski, 6-4, 6-1. Brugues is currently on a five-match winning streak with four wins against ranked opponents. In the finals of the Blue/Gray against No. 25 Texas Tech, Brugues along with teammate Ricardo Soriano dominated the No. 42-ranked pair of Michael Breler/Sinisa Markovic, 8-3. The No. 35-ranked doubles team of Brugues/Soriano is 12-2 on the season. The weekly honor is the sixth of Brugues' career, the first in 2007-08 for the All-American.

WOMEN'S TENNIS PLAYER OF THE WEEK (3/18)
THALIA DIAZ-BARRIGA - Tulsa
Jr., Cordoba, Veracruz, Mexico (Univ. of Miami Online)
Diaz-Barriga picked up her 10th and 11th singles victories last weekend in Dallas, Texas against No. 47 Louisville and No. 70 SMU. In Tulsa's tough 4-3 loss to No. 47 Louisville, Diaz-Barriga defeated Lindsey Jones, 6-2, 6-3 at the No. 2 position. In TU's 5-2 victory over C-USA rival SMU, Diaz-Barriga downed Pavi Francis, 6-4, 6-1 at the No. 2 position. With the two singles victories she is now 11-5 on the season. She also went 1-1 in doubles on the weekend with partner Marta Marcinkowska. The pair beat Louisville's team of Lauren Imre / Lindsey Jones, 8-5, in the No. 2 position. Against SMU, the duo fell to Kristen Reid / Nicole Briceno, 8-6, in a closely contested match. This is the first career weekly honor for Diaz-Barriga.