Azusa Pacific fought off Concordia during a 4-3 win to grab the Team of the Week. Biola's Nico Ramirez knocked off the PacWest POY and went 3-0 on the week to garner Player of the Week.

2024 Results/Schedule
2024 Standings
ITA Rankings

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Biola's Nico Ramirez, Sr., 6-1, Castellon, Spain                                                                                    
Biola newcomer Nico Ramirez showed that winning last fall's ITA west region title was no fluke. Ramirez, a Lee (Tenn.) University transfer, defeated Point Loma's Alexander Leischner 6-4, 6-4 in La Mirada on Saturday, and earlier in the week topped Concordia's Max Renz 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. In defeating Leischner, the 2023 PacWest Player of the Year, Ramirez laid claim of his own to be the top player in the conference. Last fall, Ramirez topped Leischner in the ITA West Region title match, 6-3, 0-6, 10-8. In doubles on Saturday against the Sea Lions, Ramirez's match was left unfinished at 6-6, and he teamed with Adrian Solorzano to win at No. 1 doubles against Concordia, 6-2. Ramirez was a two-time all-conference player at Lee.

TEAM OF THE WEEK: Azusa Pacific Cougars                                                                                                                                
Azusa Pacific went the distance to hold off upset-minded Concordia last week, 4-3. In Irvine, the Cougars survived a loss in the doubles point, which included a 7-6 (7-5) setback on court one to give the Golden Eagles a 1-0 lead. The Cougars also fell on courts one and three in singles, but rallied back with straight set victories from Elias Emilo Walter (court two), Soeren Grandke (court four) and Constantin Barch (court six). That left the final team count to be decided on court five, where Brody Bohren and Spencer Cinco were going three sets with Bohren ultimately winning out, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3. Earlier in the week, the Cougars were locked in a 3-3 tie with Division I UC Riverside before rain ended the event. APU, the defending PacWest champ, is now 6-0 in 2024.

NEWS AND NOTES: Concordia, as mentioned above, lost 4-3 to Azusa Pacific last week. But they also won by a 4-3 score over Biola. Mattis Le Montagner was very impressive in beating APU's Miho Velicki and Biola's Adrian Solorzano. He outlasted Velicki by a 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (9-7) score, and topped Solorzano 7-5, 6-1. The grad transfer from Cumberlands is now 6-0 on the season in singles play on courts one and two...Point Loma was 1-1 on the week with the narrow win over Biola and a 4-0 loss to San Diego State. Trailing 3-2 to Biola, the Sea Lions came back to clinch the match with three-set wins on court three (Andrew Suver) and court six (Matt Melosch)...MSU-Denver's road trip to Texas ended with 4-1 losses to Lubbock Christian and Harding (Ark.)...Westmont defeated Division III Whittier, 9-0.

ITA RANKINGS: The first college rankings of 2024 came out on Feb. 14 with Hawai`i Pacific representing the PacWest at No. 10 and Hawai`i Hilo making the list at No. 22. In the last singles and doubles listings (Nov. '23), the PacWest had eight players ranked in the top 50--No. 9 Alexander Leischner (PLNU), No. 14 Nico Ramirez (Biola), No. 33 Mattis Ld Montagner (CUI), No. 37 Ryo Minakata (UHH), No. 39 Mile Matic (HPU), No. 42 Elias Walter (APU), No. 46 Juho Kantola (MSUD) and No. 50 Cian McDonnell (UHH). In doubles, the November ranking had four tandems from the PacWest--No. 12 Elias Walter/Miha Velicki (APU), No. 14 Alexander Leischner/Nabeel Khan (PLNU), No. 19 Adrian Solorzano/Nico Ramirez (Biola) and No. 25 Jakub Beran/Jim Walder (HPU). 

THIS WEEK IN THE PACWEST: There are a handful of matches this week matching up PacWest teams against each other, including Concordia at Westmont (Monday), CUI at Fresno Pacific (Tuesday) and Colorado Mesa at Biola (Friday) and Azusa Pacific (Saturday). To see the complete PacWest men's tennis schedule, click here.