April 7, 2005
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - San Diego State senior Dontia Haynes has been named Mountain West Conference men's tennis player of the week. The weekly award is the first career honor for Haynes and is the second consecutive week and fourth time this season that an Aztec has been honored.
Haynes, from Bellflower, Calif., went 3-0 in singles action and 2-2 in doubles to help lead SDSU to four wins last week, three of which were over nationally-ranked teams. The Aztecs started the week by winning at unranked UC Santa Barbara and then began conference play with wins over No. 57 Utah, 58th-ranked Brigham Young and No. 40 UNLV at SDSU Tennis Stadium. With the four victories, the Aztecs moved from being unranked to No. 41 in the latest ITA Rankings and also took sole possession of first place in the MWC.
In singles, Haynes posted a, 6-2, 6-4, victory over Nick Coutts of Utah at No. 4. The following day, the senior came back from a 3-6 setback in the first set to defeat Jonathan Sanchez of BYU in three sets, 3-6, 6-0, 7-6(3), to clinch the match for the Aztecs.
Against UNLV, it was more of the same from Haynes as he clinched the match for SDSU for a second consecutive day with his, 6-2, 6-2, triumph over Johnathan Hooper at No. 5.
In doubles action, he and Daniel Jung helped the Aztecs win the doubles point against Utah and UNLV with their wins at No. 2 to give SDSU an early 1-0 match advantage heading into singles play.
Haynes is the third Aztec to earn the weekly honor this season. Junior Benedikt Stronk has received the award on two prior occasions (Jan. 26 and March 9) and fellow senior Armando Carrascosa was honored last week (March 30). The four weekly awards tie UNLV for most in the conference.
The 41st-ranked SDSU men's tennis team will be action tomorrow as it hosts the University of Hawaii at SDSU Tennis Stadium. The match is scheduled for a 2 p.m. start.