College men’s and women’s tennis: O’Connor and Seymour grab Big

West honors

UC Irvine Tennis Center - UC Irvine junior Sean O’Connor and senior

Jonni Seymour have been named Big West Conference Players of the Week in

men’s and women’s tennis, respectively.

O’Connor earned a 2-1 record at No. 1 singles and a 2-1 record at No.

2 doubles in the 23rd Annual UCI Anteater Classic last week. Both his

singles and doubles wins came against Southern Mississippi and Southwest

Missouri State. O’Connor is one of only two Big West athletes to earn the

men’s tennis Player of the Week honor twice this year and now owns an

11-6 overall singles record and is 4-1 at the top of the lineup since

being moved up March 14. The Anteater men have garnered the award a Big

West-high four times this year, including the last three weeks in a row.

Seymour tallied a 3-0 singles and doubles record at the top of the

lineup to win championships in last week’s Fifth Annual UCI Spring

Invitational. In singles, Seymour defeated Irene Kakulia of Idaho State

(6-1, 6-4), 93rd-ranked Tjasa Jezernik of Nevada (7-6, 6-4) and Elizabeth

Stone of Texas-El Paso in the championship match (6-2, 6-2).

Seymour, who is now the only Big West athlete to win women’s tennis

Player of the Week honors three times this year, has won eight of her

last nine singles matches in the No. 1 position. She has also won eight

in a row with sophomore Tiffany Chang at No. 1 doubles.

Seymour plays her final home match Saturday at 11:00 a.m. against

University of the Pacific. The UCI women’s team will be striving for a

10-match winning streak and a perfect 11-0 home record this year.