Central Oklahoma's Abidullina Named Women's Tennis Athlete of the Week

Abidullina Helps Bronchos to 2-0 Weekly Record

MIAA Communications

Women's Tennis | 3/18/2019 3:58:55 PM


KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The MIAA announced its women’s tennis athlete of the week award. Central Oklahoma’s Adel-Byanu Abidullina was selected as this week’s honoree. It is her first award from the association this season.

Abidullina led No. 11 Central Oklahoma to a pair of wins this week, beating 18th-ranked Southwest Baptist 5-2 in the 2019 MIAA opener and St. Edwards 4-3 in a neutral-site non-conference matchup. She went 4-0 in those duals, going 2-0 in both singles and doubles matches. Abidullina played the deciding match in doubles against SBU, winning 6-3 over the 10th-ranked team in the region. She then knocked off the 11th-ranked player nationally in singles, 6-1, 7-5. Abidullina won her doubles match against SEU 6-0 before winning in singles play, 6-1, 6-0. She is now 6-2 this spring, including a 5-1 mark against Division II opponents and two consecutive wins over a regionally-ranked opponent.

NOTABLE PERFORMANCES
Constanca Crespo - Southwest Baptist
Crespo helped the Bearcats to a 3-2 record on the week, defeating Texas A&M Kingsville 4-2, MIAA opponent and No. 17 Northeastern State 4-3, and the No. 8 team in the nation West Florida 4-3. She was part of the No. 2 doubles team that went 4-1 on the week, falling only to Central Oklahoma. In singles, Crespo went undefeated, winning all five matches.

Jacqueline Engelbrecht - Washburn
Engelbrecht went a combined 4-0 last week as No. 24 Washburn (10-1) swept Central College and defeated Harding. Against Central College, Engelbrecht didn't drop a single game in both doubles and singles and blanked her opponents 6-0 at No. 2 doubles and 6-0, 6-0 at No. 1 singles. In the match against Harding, she won 6-2 in the doubles competition and then rallied at the top of the order in singles for a three-set 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 victory.

Nominations for Athlete of the Week: Adel-Byanu Abidullina - Central Oklahoma, Vasilisa Polunova - Nebraska Kearney, Marta Ferrando - Northwest Missouri, Constanca Crespo - Southwest Baptist, Jacqueline Engelbrecht - Washburn