BURNEL AND WHITEHEAD NAMED WAC MEN’S TENNIS DOUBLES PLAYERS OF THE MONTH
November 6, 2023
RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) announced on Monday that The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros men’s tennis senior Emilien Burnel and junior Sam Whitehead have been named the TicketSmarter WAC Men’s Doubles Players of the Month for October.
Burnel and Whitehead went 2-1 as a duo at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Texas Regional in Fort Worth, picking up wins over two programs which were ranked in the final ITA poll of the 2023 season.
The Vaqueros picked up a win over a Power Five duo in the Doubles Round of 64. They went toe-to-toe with Texas Tech’s duo of Jonas Gundacker/Takeyasu Sekiguchi, exchanging blows to a 7-7 knot. In the tiebreaker, Burnel/Whitehead took control to secure the 8-7 (7:4) victory.
Burnel and Whitehead had a quick turnaround into their Round of 32 match, but they weren’t fazed. They handily defeated SMU’s team of Callaway Clark/Liam Krall, 8-4. The Vaqueros battled well against TCU’s Lui Maxted/Duncan Chan in the Round of 16, but fell just short of the quarterfinals, 8-5.
This is the second time Burnel and Whitehead have been recognized as a doubles team, previously winning the WAC Doubles Team of the Week award on Jan. 24 during the spring season. This is Burnel’s 10th monthly or weekly WAC award, fifth for doubles, and Whitehead’s second.
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