University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa men’s tennis player, 41st-ranked Andre Ilagan earned the first Big West Player of the Week award for 2023. This is his seventh career Big West weekly honor.
The Rainbow Warriors started the season with a challenging schedule with dual matches against No. 16 Florida State University and No. 20 Duke University sandwiching the single-day, Hawaiʻi Invitational tournament, which included Duke and UCLA. He opened with a three-set, super tie-breaker loss to FSU’s 12th-ranked Antoine Cornut-Charuvinc. Ilagan bounced back to down Duke’s 84th-ranked Pedro Rodenas in straight sets, 6-1, 6-4. He finished the homestand falling to the Blue Devils’ fourth-ranked Garrett Johns, 6-2, 7-5.
In doubles, Ilagan and partner Karl Collins went 2-1 for the weekend. UH’s No. 1 duo began by knocking off the Seminoles’ Cornut-Charuvinc and Barnaby Smith by a break, 6-4. The pair then defeated UCLA’s Lucas Magnaudet and Ryder Jackson, 6-3 before falling to Duke’s 49th-ranked Michael Heller and Andrew Zhang, 6-2.
Ilagan has earned a Big West Player of the Week award in each of his five seasons (including 2020 which was shortened due to COVID-19). He continues to have the most Big West weekly awards for the Rainbow Warriors.
