Penn State and UCLA Take Home Weekly Tennis Honors

ROSEMONT, Ill. – The Big Ten Conference has announced its men’s tennis weekly awards for matches played March 5-9.

Player of the Week
Loren Byers, Penn State
Sr. – Greensburg, Pa. — 21st Century Cyber Charter School

• Made the most of his lone match of the week against No. 3 Ohio State on the road.
• Defeated 10th-ranked Aidan Kim 7-5, 6-4, at No. 1 singles on March 8
• The unranked Byers won in straight sets against an All-American, who advanced to the Round of 16 at the NCAA Singles Championship last November
• Byers recorded his 13th singles win of the season for No. 60 Penn State, which is off to a 11-3 start
• The Academic All-Big Ten selections earns his first-ever Big Ten weekly honor
• Last Nittany Lion named Big Ten Player of the Week: Miko Eala on March 27, 2024

Freshman of the Week
Kaylan Bigun, UCLA
Fr. – Los Angeles, Calif. — Bridgeway Academy

• Recorded a 3-0 record (2-0 singles, 1-0 doubles) as No. 62 UCLA posted home wins over No. 38 Indiana and No. 44 Purdue in the Bruins’ Big Ten debut
• UCLA notched back-to-back 7-0 wins for the first time since 2018
• Bigun earned a pair of wins at No. 2 singles, downing Indiana’s Jip van Assendelft, 6-3, 6-3 and Purdue’s Juan David Velasquez, 6-0, 6-2
• Teamed with fellow freshman Rudy Quan to register a 6-3 win at No. 3 doubles versus Braedon Gelletich and Karan Raghavendra of Indiana
• A participant in U.S. Open qualifying, Bigun receives his first Big Ten certificate
• Last Bruin chosen Big Ten Freshman of the Week: Rudy Quan on Feb. 26, 2025

2024-25 Big Ten Men’s Tennis Weekly Awards
Sept. 18       
P: Kenta Miyoshi, Jr., ILL
Sept. 25       
P: Max Sheldon, Sr., MSU
Oct. 2          
P: Aidan Kim, So., OSU
Oct. 9          
P: Paris Pouatcha, Fr., ORE
Oct. 16        
P: Gavin Young, Sr., MICH | Ozan Baris, Jr., MSU
Oct. 23        
P: Spencer Johnson, So., UCLA
Oct. 30        
P: Danial Rakhmatullayev, Fr., MSU
Nov. 6         
P: Preston Stearns, So., OSU
Nov. 13       
P: Gavin Young, Sr., MICH
Jan. 15         
P: Patorn Hanchaikul, Sr., MICH
F: Edouard Aubert, Fr., WIS
Jan. 22         
P: Aristotelis Thanos, So., MSU
F: Rudy Quan, Fr., UCLA
Jan. 29         
P: Benjamin Kittay, Jr., MICH
F: Reiya Hattori, Fr., PSU
Feb. 5          
P: Peter Makk, Sr., USC
F: Matthew Forbes, Fr., MSU
Feb. 12        
P: Aidan Kim, So., OSU
F: Clement Lemire, Fr., ORE
Feb. 19        
P: Kenta Miyoshi, Jr., ILL
F: Nathan Trouvé, Fr., USC
Feb. 26        
P: Henrik Villanger, So., PUR
F: Rudy Quan, Fr., UCLA
March 5       
P: Dzianis Zharyn, Sr., WASH
F: Vincent Yang, Fr., NU
March 12     
P: Loren Byers, Sr., PSU
F: Kaylan Bigun, Fr., UCLA