UCF’s Aya El Aouni (women’s) and Arizona’s Jay Friend (men’s) were named the Big 12 Men’s and Women’s Tennis Players of the Week for Matches ending March 2.

Aouni assisted the Knights to two top-75 wins over No. 25 Oklahoma State and No. 73 Kansas State. The freshman studying communications, started the week with a straight-sets victory (6-4, 6-3) against K-State’s Charlotte Keitel on the top singles court to push UCF’s lead to 3-1. Against the Cowgirls, Aouni took down Melisa Ercan on the No. 1 court, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, to clinch the match for UCF. She is now 8-0 on the season in singles play. She added two doubles wins as she teamed up with Sophia Biolay.
 
Friend finished the week 3-0 with two ranked wins as Arizona picked up two wins at the Diablo Invitational in Tempa, Arizona. The Tokyo, Japan native defeated Washington’s No. 57-ranked Cesar Bouchelaghem 7-6(4), 7-5 to even the match at 3-3 before the Wildcats clinched a 4-3 victory. Against Arizona State, Friend clinched the doubles point on the No. 1 doubles court with teammate Eric Padgham 6-3, over the No. 56—ranked duo in Bor Artnak and Matic Dimic. Shortly after, he added another singles victory against Artnak to the score of 6-4, 6-1. It is his second Conference weekly award this season.