Stony Brook's Nihal Advani (Mumbai, India/Arkansas-Littlerock) is the America East Men's Tennis Player of the Week, while Binghamton's Lya Kushnirovich (Brooklyn, N.Y./Brooklyn Technical) and UMBC's Ale Pedergnana (Holliswood, N.Y./St. Francis Prep) share the honor on the women's side. The accolades were announced Tuesday (April 11).
Advani was a perfect 2-0 at No. 3 singles, dropping only two games, as he helped the Seawolves to a 2-0 week. Advani was a perfect 2-0 at No. 2 doubles as the Seawolves knocked off UMBC and Binghamton to improve to 3-0 in America East play. Against UMBC, Advani teamed with Jean-Francois Robitaille, winning a tight match at No. 2 doubles, 8-7 (7-3) and then cruised at No.3 singles, 6-0, 6-0. Against the defending champs, Advani and Robitaille teamed up again and won 8-6. Advani cruised again at No. 3 singles, winning 6-1, 6-1 as the Seawolves beat Binghamton 5-2. With the perfect week, Advani improves to 7-3 at No. 3 singles and 9-2 at No. 2 doubles.
Kushnirovich swept a pair of singles and doubles matches as Binghamton won conference matches against UMBC on Saturday (5-2) and Stony Brook on Monday (7-0). At No. 4 singles, she defeated Elizabeth Anderson of UMBC 6-1, -6-2 and Monica Myers of Stony Brook 6-0, 6-0. In doubles play, she teamed at No. 3 with Nicole Scarangella to win 8-2 against both UMBC and Stony Brook. Kushnirovich now has 62 career singles wins (third all time in school history) and 45 doubles wins (sixth all-time). Binghamton has won all three America East Conference matches this season.
No. 1 Pedergnana (Queens, N.Y./St. Francis Prep) continued her outstanding play with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Stony Brook’s Sandy Wijeratme. The senior extended her winning streak to nine straight in singles and is now 11-4 at #1 singles and 8-4 at #1 doubles this spring. Her 19 wins this spring give her 96 in her career. Pedergnana had recorded a 7-5, 6-3 win over Binghamton’s Julianna Umeki on Saturday and was 4-0 for the week with wins vs. West Virginia and Delaware.