Kansas’ Malkia Ngounoue (women’s) and TCU’s Sander Jong (men’s) collected Big 12 Tennis Players of the Week after leading their teams to undefeated weekends.
Ngounoue finished the weekend 2-0 in singles against Arizona and Texas Tech while her match against UC Santa Barbara’s Amelia Honer did not finish. The Washington, D.C. native defeated Midori Castillo-Meza (Arizona) 7-5, 6-1 to open the weekend before finishing with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Olivia Peet (Texas Tech).
In doubles, Ngounoue and teammate Heike Janse Van Vuuren defeated the No. 50 ranked pair of Avelina Sayfetdinova and Metka Komac, 6-1. The duo also added one more win with a 6-4 victory over Arizona’s Parker Fry and Salma Ziouti.
It is Ngounoue’s first Big 12 weekly award of her career.
Jong helped lead TCU to its second consecutive Indoor National Championship as he picked up two ranked individual wins and posted a combined record of 6-1. The senior started the weekend with a win over Baylor’s Zsombor Velcz (6-4, 6-2) before defeating No. 62 Blake Croyder (Georgia) 6-4, 6-3 and No. 25 Siem Woldeab (Texas) 6-2, 6-3.
He then played with teammate Jack Pinnington for the first time in his career in doubles and finished 3-1 with wins over No. 10 Baylor (6-3), No. 13 Georgia (7-5) and No. 6 Texas (6-2). Jong and Pinnington clinched the doubles point for the Horned Frogs in the win over Georgia’s Teodor Guisca and Blake Croyder.
Jong now sports a career Indoor Nationals record of 22-6 (12-3 in singles, 11-4 in doubles) and helped TCU become just the seventh program in ITA tournament history to win back-to-back championships. This is his third career Big 12 weekly award and first this season.
The full list of the season’s Big 12 Players of the Week can be found
here.