Dec. 6, 2011

IRVING, Texas - Ashley Watling has been named the Conference USA Men's Tennis Athlete of the Month, the league announced today.

The senior member of the Tulsa men's tennis team paired with junior teammate Clifford Marsland to finish runner up at the 2011 USTA/ITA National Indoor Men's Doubles Championship in early November.

The No. 4-ranked duo began their tournament with an 8-4 victory over Nikola Bubnic and Thibaut Visy of San Diego. They then defeated Michigan's No. 33 team of Shaun Bernstein and Evan King in the quarterfinals by a score of 8-6.

In the semifinals, Watling and Marsland dropped No. 36 Nassim Slilam and Billy Federhofer of Florida 6-3, 7-5.

The Tulsa tandem won the first set 6-4, but fell 7-5, 6-2 in the final two sets of the championship match to No. 3 Chase Buchanan and Blaz Rola of Ohio State.

Marsland and Watling have had a dominant fall, posting a 10-2 record as a duo. They won the USTA/ITA Central Region Doubles Championship and also reached the quarterfinals of the 2011 ITA All-American Championships in early October.

This is the first time Tulsa has swept the three monthly honors in a single year. Marsland was named the men's tennis athlete of the month in September and October.

Watling was also named men's tennis athlete of the month in October 2009.

C-USA MEN'S TENNIS ATHLETE OF THE MONTH (NOVEMBER)
Ashley Watling, Tulsa - Senior - Ipswich, England

C-USA WOMEN'S TENNIS ATHLETE OF THE MONTH (NOVEMBER)
Marta Lesniak, SMU - Senior - Wroclaw, Poland