BYU's Batrakov Earns Second Player of the Week

Colorado Springs, Colo. (Feb. 18, 2010) – Sophomore Georgy Batrakov earned Mountain West Conference Player of the Week honors for the second time in his collegiate career this week. The Cougar took the award for the men while Colorado State’s Laura Neal earned recognition on the women’s side.

Batrakov, who hails from Yaroslavl, Russia, went a combined 4-0 over the weekend to lead the Cougars to a pair of victories over No. 53 Denver and Drake. Against the Pioneers, he defeated Enej Bonin (7-6, 7-5) at the No. 4 singles position after partnering with Daniel Hwang to defeat Bonin/Fabio Biasion (9-8) at the No. 3 slot in doubles to help BYU secure the doubles point on its way to a 4-3 upset victory. The sophomore went on to beat Drake’s Jonathan Hadash in straight sets (6-2, 6-1) at the No. 4 singles position after once again teaming up with Hwang to down Hadash/Ryan Drake (8-4) to help the Cougars earn their eighth-consecutive victory, 6-1, over the Bulldogs.

A product of Portland, Ore., Neal went undefeated in Colorado State’s lone match of the weekend, recording victories at the No.1 singles and doubles positions, respectively, to help the Rams secure a 5-2 victory over Northern Arizona. At the top of the CSU lineup, the senior captain netted a two-set singles victory over Orsi Golovics (7-6 (5), 6-2) to help ignite the Rams’ come-from-behind victory in Fort Collins. Earlier in Saturday’s dual against the Lumberjacks, Neal and partner Caitlin Fluegge recorded a resounding win over the 35th-ranked doubles team of Golovics/Mila Wahinepio (8-3), as CSU posted its third-consecutive victory.