April 27, 2011
FORT COLLINS, Colo. - The San Diego State men's tennis team had two singles players and one doubles team earn all-Mountain West Conference men's tennis honors, the league announced on Wednesday morning prior to the start of the 2011 MWC Tennis Championship in Fort Collins, Colo.
The Aztecs' top singles player, Giovanni Vaglietti was honored along with junior Javier Pulgar, while the doubles tandem of Vaglietti and Hunter Nicholas were also recognized. The awards were chosen by the conference's seven head coaches.
Vaglietti played at No. 1 singles in all six of San Diego State's Mountain West contests this season and finished 3-3. After struggling in singles play at the start of league, Vaglietti quickly turned it around and went on a three-match winning streak against Air Force, Utah and BYU. Despite the Aztecs dropping a 5-2 decision to BYU on April 9, Vaglietti defeated Evan Urbina at the No. 1 spot in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6 (5). Urbina was also named to the all-MWC team and started the spring season ranked No. 110 nationally.
Pulgar, meanwhile, started league play at number three singles but moved his way up to the No. 2 spot after three consecutive victories against TCU, New Mexico and Air Force. Despite dropping his next two singles matches, Pulgar was able to close the regular season with a win against fellow all-MWC honoree Tamas Batyi of UNLV to finish the year with a 4-2 record.
The duo of Vaglietti and Nicholas competed in five of the six conference matches this season and went 3-2. After starting league play with a close 8-7 victory against TCU's Emanuel Brighiu and Christopher Price, who also were named to the all-MWC Team, the tandem hit a two-match slump. Vaglietti and Nicholas, however, finished the season strong with consecutive doubles victories. The final win for SDSU's No. 1 pairing came against another fellow all-MWC tandem of Georgy Batrakov and Thomas Shubert from BYU.