Fanselow, Ching Earn WCC Player of the Month Awards
4/5/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
April 5, 2012
MALIBU, Calif. - Junior Sebastian Fanselow of the Pepperdine men's tennis team and freshman Alina Ching of the women's golf team each earned West Coast Conference Player of the Month awards for the second time during this school year, the league office announced today.
Fanselow (Essen, Germany/Kaplan College Prep School) also won for November, and this is the fourth time in his career that he has won the award. Ching (Honolulu, Hawaii/Punahou School) earned top honors for the second consecutive month.
The men's tennis team went a perfect 6-0 against six ranked teams - three of which were listed in the top-10 - during the month of March. Teams that fell to the Waves included #5 Duke, #8 Cal, #22 Texas Tech, #59 Nebraska, #17 Washington and #8 Stanford.
Fanselow was one of two players, the other being Finn Tearney, to go a perfect 6-0 in singles last month. Fanselow, who played five of the six matches from the No. 1 spot in the lineup, tallied five wins over ranked singles opponents. To open the month, the junior downed #2-ranked Henrique Cunha of Duke in straight sets. He also defeated Washington's #17-ranked Kyle McMorrow, 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.
Fanselow is currently riding a 10-match win streak after a trio of wins versus West Coast Conference opponents. Most recently, on April 4, he was instrumental in Pepperdine's 5-2 win over #17 San Diego, and won in both singles and doubles. With the team victory, the Waves overtook first place in the conference standings and improved to 15-6 overall.
In three March golf tournaments, Ching had a pair of second-place finishes at both the Bruin Wave Invitational and the `Anuenue Spring Break Classic. She helped Pepperdine to a first-place finish at the Bruin Wave Invitational (the Waves beat top-ranked UCLA by two strokes).
Ching averaged 74.13 strokes in eight rounds and two of her rounds were below par. She had a 3-under 69 in the second round of the Bruin Wave and a 3-under 69 in the first round at the Spring Break Classic. Facing strong competition at each event, Ching finished better than nine top 100 ranked opponents at the Bruin Wave, 12 at the Battle at the Rancho Bernardo Inn (where she tied for 26th place) and 12 at the `Anuenue Spring Break Classic.
In the individual rankings, Ching has moved up to #71 in the Golfstat ratings and #73 by Golfweek/Sagarin, and has helped Pepperdine to #18 national rankings by Golfstat and Golf World/NGCA and #21 by Golfweek/Sagarin.
The men's golf award was won by Alina's brother, Alex Ching, who competes for the University of San Diego.
