ABQ's Georgio Samaha Named MW Freshman of Week

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — For the second straight week, a Lobo men’s tennis player of named the Mountain West Freshman of the Week. Georgio Samaha, who played his high school tennis in Albuquerque at Eldorado High School had about a good a week as you can have, going 5-0 in singles and doubles combined, running his singles winning streak to five straight, winning league honors.

Samaha’s honor follows on the heels of teammate Arda Azkara, who was the Mountain West Player and Freshman of the Week just seven days ago.

The baby-faced right-hander was a key reason that UNM swept all three matches on the week, beating BYU twice 4-0 and Northern Arizona 5-2.  Samaha, playing in front of friends and family, was perfect in singles on Court Six, winning all three by straight sets and giving up just 12 games over the six sets he played.

Against BYU on Saturday he earned the clinching point of UNM’s 4-0 victory with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Tennyson Whiting.  In his other two singles matches, a 6-1, 6-2 over BYU’s Otto Schreiner and a 6-1, 6-3 over NAU’s Dani Torres, he picked up UNM’s first singles point to give UNM 2-0 leads.

In doubles, he went 2-0, both times clinching the doubles point, and the lone match he played in doubles that didn’t finish, he was up with teammate Rafael Abdulsalam 5-4, 30-love.

For the season, Samaha is tied for the team lead in wins with 10, and he has won five singles matches in a row, and he is undefeated in doubles, going 4-0 and leading his other two matches when the point was called.  New Mexico heads to Arizona State for the ASU Invitational Friday through Sunday in Tempe.