Miami Athletes of the Week
2/15/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
OXFORD, Ohio -- For their performances last week senior men's swimmer Christopher Dieter and women's tennis sophomore Nelli Ponomareva are Miami's Athletes of the Week for the week of Feb. 8-14.
Dieter helped Miami to a dual meet victory over Ball State this past weekend. The St. Charles, Ill. native finished first in the 500-yd freestyle, touching the wall in a time of 4:47.97. The senior will now shift his focus to the MAC Championships, which are set to begin Mar. 2 in Ypsilanti, Mich.
This is the first time this season and in his career that Dieter has been named Miami's Male Athlete of the Week.
Ponomareva completed a comeback 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 win at No. 4 singles Sunday that helped Miami earn a 4-3 upset victory over #55 Marshall. After dropping her first set to Maddie Silver, Ponomareva rebounded for a strong second set performance that sent the match into the deciding frame. During that set, the Thundering Herd took a 3-2 lead following consecutive victories by its top three players, before freshman Emily Struble tied the match with her victory at No. 5. Ponomareva dropped the opening two games of the final set, but was able to tie it at 2 and eventually take the lead at 4-3. Eventually, she would win her last three games and clinch a huge victory for the RedHawks. Sunday's win was the first this season over a ranked opponent and the first over Marshall since 2012. Earlier in the day, Ponomareva and Anastasiia Vasiukhina helped clinch the doubles point for the RedHawks with a 6-4 win at No. 1 doubles.
This is the first time this season and in her career that Ponomareva has been named Miami's Female Athlete of the Week.
The next Miami Athletes of the Week will be announced Monday, Feb. 22.
Players Mentioned
