BRIDGEWATER, N.J. — Senior
Pablo Rodriguez Gonzalez earned NEC Player of the Week, and redshirt freshman
Lukas Escher earned NEC Rookie of the Week for their performances against Army and LIU, the conference announced on Tuesday.
This is Rodriguez's first NEC award in his collegiate career, and the second time a Wagner men's tennis player has won Player of the Week this season, after sophomore
Eddie Schmidt won Co-Player of the Week on February 26. It's Wagner's first outright Player of the Week award since David Krasner won it in November of 2023.
Rodriguez started his weekend with a loss in the doubles round against Army, but bounced back in the singles round with a thrilling win on court 4, going to a tiebreaker game in the second and third sets, and ultimately winning the final tiebreaker 10-8 in set three (6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (10-8)), clinching the win for Wagner against Army.
Against LIU on Sunday, Rodriguez joined sophomore
Joshua Zhao in winning the doubles match on court 2, 6-3. He then clinched another team victory for the Seahawks, by winning his singles match on court 4 in straight sets (6-4, 6-4).
For Escher, this is his second consecutive Rookie of the Week award, and his fourth of the season. He breaks a tie with former Seahawks
Damian Janiszewski (2025) and Michal Rolski (2014-15) for the most Rookie of the Week award wins in a season.
Against Army, Escher joined his doubles partner Schmidt in winning their doubles match 6-4, then started the singles round with a straight-set win on court 2 (6-1, 6-4). Escher and Schmidt kept the momentum going against LIU the next day, and won their doubles match 7-5. Escher was not able to complete his singles match, but he led 6-4, 4-3 when the match was abandoned.
Additionally, sophomore
Vibhu Challagundla earned a Prime Performer nod this week. Challagundla played in two singles matches on court 5 over the weekend and won both of them, and each time they set up Rodriguez to collect the clinching victories. He started with a three-set win against Army (7-5, 2-6, 6-2), then he won his match against LIU in straight sets (6-3, 6-4).
The no. 2 Seahawks will return to the courts for the NEC Championships starting on Thursday, April 16. They will take on no. 7 Stonehill at the Mercer County Tennis Center at 11:30 a.m.
