DALLAS – UTSA’s Tiago Torres and Rice’s Saara Orav were named Conference USA Tennis Athletes of the Week. The weekly awards are presented by Blenders Eyewear.

C-USA Men’s Tennis Athlete of the Week – Tiago Torres, UTSA, So., Libson, Portugal
Torres helped lead UTSA to a perfect 3-0 week and boost its 37^th-ranked resume. The sophomore from Portugal earned victories in all three of his singles matches on court No. 1 including two road contests at Georgia State and Charlotte to close the week. Torres defeated Sasha Trkulja of Gonzaga 6-7, 6-4, 6-4 at home on Tuesday, followed by a 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 defeat of Georgia State’s Roberts Grinvalds and a straight set win over Charlotte’s Coy Simon, 7-6, 6-2. He partnered with Alan Magadan to claim doubles victories at Georgia State and Charlotte. The Roadrunners have rattled off 12 straight wins and boast their highest ITA ranking in the program’s history.
 
C-USA Women’s Tennis Athlete of the Week – Saara Orav, Rice, So. Viljandi, Estonia 
Orav battled back from being down 1-6, 4-5 to provide the clinching point in Rice's 4-3 win at No. 30 Charlotte on Sunday. Orav opened the day by teaming with Darya Schwartzman for a win at the third doubles line to answer a Charlotte win at two and set the stage for the Owls to take the crucial opening point with a win at the first line. In singles, she rallied to win the last three games of her second set to force a third and then with the marathon match tied 3-3, broke serve at 4-4 and then held her serve to give Rice its first win over a top 30 opponent since 2021. 
 
2023 Men’s Tennis Athletes of the Week
J18         Hunter Robbins, Florida Atlantic
J25         Emir Sendogan, Rice
F1          Ondrej Horak, Middle Tennessee
F8          Pavel Motl, Middle Tennessee
F15        Stijn Slump, Middle Tennessee
F22        Michal Lusovsky, UAB
M1        Alan Magadan, UTSA
M8        Santiago Navarro, Rice
M15      Oskar Brostrom Poulsen, Middle Tennessee
M22      Tiago Torres, UTSA
 
2023 Women’s Tennis Athlete of the Week
J18         Leonie Schuknecht, Louisiana Tech
J25         Rachel Hermanova, WKU
F1          Ekaterina Khairutdinova, FIU
F8          Aleksandra Zlatarova, UTSA
F15        Carlotta Mencaglia, UTEP
F22        Matilde Morais, North Texas
M1        Oyinlomo Quadre, FIU
M8        Yasmine Kabbaj, FIU
M15      Leonie Schuknecht, Louisiana Tech
M22      Saara Orav, Rice