Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Macon, Ga. -- After a perfect weekend at the singles and doubles ranks, Stetson's Filip Kricka has been selected as the Atlantic Sun's Athlete of the Week, league officials announced today.

The Umag, Croatia native recorded four total wins with two in singles and two in doubles. Alone, Kricka tackled Bethune-Cookman's Jerome Ward (6-4, 6-0) in a mid-week showdown, before being forced to a third game against Eddie Majcher of former A-Sun foe, Florida Atlantic. Kricka and Majcher split the first two games, but Kricka bounced back from a Game 2 loss to win the match 6-1, 3-6, 6-1.

Kricka, a junior, was also able to pair with two-time first team all-conference selection and the 2006 Player of the Year, Marcus Echtler, to garner two doubles wins. The duo handed Bethune-Cookman's Thabani Sithole and Christian Cruz an 8-3 drubbing in Daytona Beach before returning home for a 9-7 win on Saturday of FAU's Karol Szmurlo and Corey Smith.

The award is the first of its kind for Kricka as he puts an end to the three-week domination of the award by ETSU. Kricka becomes the fourth hatter to be named the AOTW in the five-year existence of the award. He follows Marcus Echtler (March 21, 2006), Mario Cayo (Feb. 14, 2007) and Vittorio Fratta (March 12, 2003).

The Atlantic Sun Player of the Week is announced every Tuesday during the 2007 tennis season.

The 12-member league headquartered in Macon, Ga., consists of Belmont, Campbell, ETSU, Gardner-Webb, Jacksonville, Kennesaw State, Lipscomb, Mercer, UNF and Stetson with Florida Gulf Coast and USC Upstate beginning competition in 2007-08.

Other Top Performers:

• Josh Cummings, Lipscomb
[Fr. -- San Vito de Normanni, Italy-- Computer Engineering]
Cummings won his third match of the season, beating West McKinney of Alabama A&M on Saturday.

• Enrique Olivares, ETSU
[So. -- Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela -- Undeclared]
Olivares picked up ETSU's only singles win against No. 26 Wake Forest. He defeated Andrew Hamar 6-4, 6-2.

• Patrick Russo, Mercer
[Sr. -- Birmingham, Ala. -- Political Science]
Russo was 2-0 in singles and 1-1 in doubles. He earned wins over Wofford's George Kernodle (75, 7-6) and rallied to defeat Birmingham Southern's David Ray (6-7, 7-6, 6-2).

• Jordi Ballester, Jacksonville
[So. -- Elche, Spain -- Business]
Ballester went 2-0 at No. 1 singles as he defeated Matia Sigal (6-3, 6-1) of North Florida and Artiom Podgainii (6-4, 6-2) of Florida A&M.