The Aggie senior from Dresden, Germany, defeated host New Mexico’s Rodolfo Jauregui, 4-6, 6-1, 6-3, to win the Cherry Draw and remained undefeated in doubles play with partner Strahinja Trecakov after the tandem defeated Northern Arizona’s Alexandre Locci and Jordan Gobatie to win the doubles championship.
The NM State duo then won a match at the USTA/ITA Mountain Regional in Las Vegas, Nev. (Oct. 15-19) to advance to the round of 16 before falling 8-7 for their first defeat of the season.
Shrivastava becomes the first Aggie player in program history to win back-to-back WAC Athlete of the Month awards. The NM State junior from Pune, India, continued her torrid start to the season at the 2014 USTA/ITA Mountain Regional Championships in Albuquerque, N.M., Oct. 16-18.
After having the best performance by an Aggie tennis player in history at the 2014 Riviera/ITA All-American Championships, Shrivastava earned a No. 4 seed at the 128-player regional tournament, where she did not disappoint.
She earned a first-round bye and then proceeded to win four-straight matches in straight sets to advance to the semifinal round, where she finally lost to the 76th-ranked player in the country, and No. 1 seed in the tournament, Tereza Bekerova of Utah. She became the first player in NM State history to advance to the semifinal round of a regional tournament.
Shrivastava also advanced to the quarterfinal round of the tournament in doubles’ play alongside partner Rimpledeep Kaur. The 12th-seeded Aggie duo also received a first-round bye and then won two matches before falling to the fourth-ranked team in the tournament, Utah’s Tereza Bekerova and Lucia Kovarcikova.
“We are extremely proud of Ash, she has played a lot of tennis this fall compiling an exceptional record of 9-2 in singles,” Aggie head coach Ivan Fernandez said. “Her only two losses have been to a player ranked in the top 50 in the nation at the All-American Tournament and one ranked top 80 in the semifinals of the ITA Regional Tournament. The hard work that she has put in the last two years has paid off. She truly deserves these awards and recognition for her great play this fall.”