Celia Vaudiau wins 2nd WAC Singles Athlete of the Week award this season

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STEPHENVILLE, Texas – The Western Athletic Conference announced on Wednesday that for the fourth time in eight weeks, a Tarleton tennis player has won a weekly award.

This is a repeat winner, with junior Celia Vaudiau named the WAC Singles Athlete of the Week award recipient for the second time this season.

This time around, Vaudiau went 4-0 in singles as part of Tarleton’s 3-1 week on the courts from Feb. 28 through March 6. She won all four matches in straight sets, defeating Louisiana Tech’s Alexia Romero 6-2, 6-2 at No. 5, Grambling State’s Claire Machisa 6-2, 6-1 at No. 4, Grand Canyon’s Jana Weiss 6-4, 6-1 at No. 5, and Dixie State’s Rachel Mellor 6-2, 6-4 at No. 5.

Vaudiau is now 12-1 on the season with an active 12-match winning streak. That’s the longest winning streak by a Tarleton player in their NCAA Division I era, surpassing Marth Makantasi’s nine-match winning streak last season. Vaudiau has the most wins and the best singles record across the WAC this year, also owning the best winning streak this season. She’s won nine straight matches in straight sets, not allowing her opponent to win five games in a set once during the span.

Over her past nine matches, she’s outscored her opponents in games 105-34.

As a team, Tarleton has won 10 of their last 11 matches to improve to 11-3 on the season. It’s their best record through the first 14 games of a season over the past eight years (2013-14). They own the best record out of all Western Athletic Conference teams. The Texans have lost just a single time since Jan. 22, a highly competitive 2-4 defeat at Louisiana Tech, who has now won 11 straight matches and is 13-2 on the year. Tarleton’s other two losses towards the beginning of the spring were to current top-11 ranked Power Five programs on the road. Oklahoma is No. 3 in the ITA Division I Women’s Team Rankings, and Texas A&M is No. 11.

This was the eighth week the WAC has dished out weekly awards this tennis season. Four times out of the eight weeks, Tarleton has earned at least one of the two awards distributed, winning both awards three times.

This is Vaudiau’s second WAC Singles Athlete of the Week honor this year, the other coming in Week 1 (Jan. 19). Also that week, Deniza Marcinkevica plus Jemi Aguilar made up the WAC Doubles Team of the Week. In Week 3 (Feb. 2), Marcinkevica was WAC Singles Athlete of the Week, and she was part of the WAC Doubles Team of the Week once again with Aguilar. In Week 6 (Feb. 23), Makantasi was the WAC Singles Athlete of the Week, plus she was part of the WAC Doubles Team of the Week, along with Elsa Boisson.

Tarleton next plays Tuesday at home against Pacific at 10 a.m. CT at the Potishman-Lard Tennis Courts.

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