Cal Poly women’s tennis player Brittany Blalock was named Big West Conference Athlete of the Week for the second time this season on Wednesday afternoon after prevailing during both of her singles matches and a pair of doubles victories last week.
During Cal Poly’s 4-3 loss at then-No. 39 Saint Mary’s on April 16, Blalock partnered with Suzie Matzenauer at the No. 1 position to edge Claire Soper and Alex Poorta. Blalock then returned at the No. 2 singles position to sweep Catherine Isip.
Blalock, Cal Poly’s career leader for singles victories, returned the following morning to help the Mustangs close both the home and Big West portions of their spring schedule with a 7-0 win against UC Riverside. Blalock and Matzenauer opened Cal Poly’s doubles effort with a win against Angelique Corpuz and Roxanne Plata. The victory helped Cal Poly clinch the doubles point for the 16th time in 20 spring matches, an 80 percent win rate unequaled among Big West programs.
In singles play against the Highlanders, Blalock closed her collegiate tenure on Mustang Courts with a triumph at the No. 1 position versus Nadia Sakhakorn.
The four victories allowed Blalock to improve to 14-5 this spring in singles play and 17-2 in doubles action. Wednesday’s accolade was the fifth career honor for Blalock and third by a Mustang this season, following Matzenauer’s Feb. 24 honor.
No. 61 Cal Poly (14-6) concludes its regular season schedule at Fresno State on Saturday, April 24 at 12 noon. Up nine positions from last week, Blalock and Matzenauer will enter the match ranked No. 32 among Division-I doubles pairings.
Despite finishing with a 6-2 mark in Big West duals and in a three-way tie for second place in the conference standings, Cal Poly held none of the seeding tiebreaker advantages for the Big West Championships. Seeded fourth, the Mustangs will open the tournament against No. 5 Cal State Northridge on Friday.