Washington State University Athletics
Donika Bashota Named Pac-12 Player of the Week
April 11, 2016 | Tennis
SAN FRANCISCO - Washington State sophomore Donika Bashota has been named the Pac-12 Conference Women's Tennis Player of the Week for April 4-10, the conference announced Monday.
Bashota recorded two of the biggest upsets of her collegiate career last weekend, defeating No. 12 Klara Fabikova of California and No. 78 Caroline Doyle of Stanford. In Friday's match against Cal, Bashota provided the only Cougar victory as she fought off three-straight match points down 9-6 in the third-set tiebreaker for a 6-7, 6-0, 1-0 (11-9) win. In closing out the last five points of the match for the victory, she recorded the biggest win of her career and defeated the highest-ranked opponent by a Cougar player since the 2010 season. Bashota followed that up with another three-set win, this time over Stanford's Doyle. After splitting the first two sets, Bashota dominated the 10-point tiebreaker, taking the final seven points of the match, winning 5-7, 6-3, 1-0 (10-2).
The Lidkoping, Sweden, native recently cemented her place in the Washington State tennis record books. With a total of 36 victories, Bashota moved past Elisabeth Fournier (2012) on the single-season singles wins list. She passed her 31 wins from last season, which was a WSU freshman record. Furthermore, Bashota's 36-8 record, including a 19-6 mark in dual matches, passed Liudmila Vasilieva (2011-12) for the second-best start in school history.
Bashota is the first Cougar to receive Player of the Week honors since Elizaveta Luzina did so Feb. 18, 2014.
Players Mentioned
