April 13, 2005

Chicago, Ill.- University of Illinois at Chicago junior Ivan Kovalev (Almaty, Kazakhstan/School N55/Lousiana-Lafayette) was named Horizon League Men's Tennis Athlete of the Week for the period ending April 12th, the league office announced on Wednesday.

Kovalev was dominating this week, taking three singles victories and three doubles matches to help UIC run their season-best team winning streak to five.

The junior No. 1 singles player captured a 6-3, 7-5 win over Youngstown State's Tom Barth on April 9th, then went on to blank IUPUI's Juan Mas by a 6-0, 6-0 count later that day.

Kovalev finished off his week with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Chicago State's Prabowo Imanuel.

He has won his last five matches and clinched nine wins in his last ten contests.

This marks the second time that Kovalev has won the weekly league honor, having earned the accolade for the first time on March 9th.

UIC is back in action this Friday for a vital Horizon League match at UW-Green Bay beginning at 2 p.m.