May 1, 2007

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IRVING, Texas - Tulsa received the top two Conference USA men's tennis honors on Tuesday as the 2007 All-Conference USA Men's Tennis awards were announced by the league office. TU sophomore Arnau Brugues earned C-USA Player of the Year and All-League first-team recognition for the second consecutive year, while head coach Vince Westbrook, was named Coach of the Year for the second year in a row after leading his team to back-to-back C-USA men's tennis titles.

Brugues has a 17-3 singles record this season, including an 9-3 mark against ranked opponents, and a 14-3 doubles record this spring. He earned a No. 2 ITA ranking on February 21st, the highest ever rankings for a C-USA men's tennis player. In the fall, Brugues won the Polo Ralph Lauren All-American Tennis Championship and became the first C-USA player to win a national championship. The junior was also named C-USA Men's Tennis Player of the Week two times this season.

Westbrook has tallied a 223-185 (.547) career mark with the men's program and led the No. 16 Golden Hurricane to its fourth conference championship title. In Tulsa's five C-USA championship matches in '06 and `07, the Golden Hurricane has out scored their opponents, 25-1.

In addition to his other accolades, Brugues was named C-USA's Outstanding Player of the Championship. The junior helped secure the league title with three straight-set wins at his No. 1 singles position and was 2-1 with partner Federico Sorinao at the No. 3 doubles position during the championship.

The 41st-ranked Tulsa tandem of Diego Camacho and Ross Cunningham claimed the doubles point on two occasions during the championship for TU at the No. 1 doubles line en route to earning the title of Outstanding Doubles Team of the Championship. The pair was leading in its third match, but the contest was not finished once the doubles point was clinched in Tulsa's favor.

Southern Miss freshman Oscar Muchuca, who went 14-4 in 2007 at various lineup positions, claimed C-USA's Freshman of the Year honor. He won both of his regular season matches against C-USA foes and went 9-2 at the No. 4 spot. Newcomer of the Year honors went to junior Amrit Narasimhan of Memphis. The transfer from Tyler Junior College saw most of his action at the top of the Tigers' lineup and finished the spring with a team-best 12-5 record. Narasimham went 7-2 in his last nine decisions.

Three teams were represented on the all-league first team. Joining Brugues as first-team members were teammate Ricardo Soriano, as well as Rice's Ben Harknett, Ralph Knupfer and Christoph Müller and SMU's Alex Skrypko. Representing the All-Conference Doubles Team were also duos from Tulsa, Rice and SMU. Camacho and Cunningham of TU were joined on the team by Knupfer and Tobais Scheil of Rice and Skrypko and Federico Soriano from SMU.

Tulsa led all C-USA teams with eight all-league selections, while the Owls followed with four selections and SMU notched three honors.