WALTHAM, Mass. – A pair of Brandeis University seniors have been recognized as University Athletic Association (UAA) Athletes of the Week for the week ending September 29th. David Aizenberg of Highland Park, Illinois, was honored for the men's tennis team, while Greg Irwin of Passaic, New Jersey, was selected as the men's soccer Defensive Player of the Week.
Irwin was recognized for his performance in back-to-back shutouts last week. He made six saves, two shy of a career-best, in a 0-0 draw on the road at Wheaton College on Tuesday afternoon. On Saturday, he had one stop on two shots faced in a 3-0 victory over Mitchell College in the first-ever meeting between the two schools. The shutouts were Irwin's second and third of the season and gave him nine for his career.
For the season, Irwin leads the UAA with 37 saves. He is third with an .822 save percentage and fourth with an 0.82 goals-against average.
Brandeis returns to action this evening against MIT at 7 p.m. before opening UAA play on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. against Carnegie Mellon.
Aizenberg was recognized for his performance at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association New England Regional tournament, where reached the quarterfinals in both the singles and doubles draws. In singles action, Aizenberg was the tournament's third seed. He opened the tournament with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Jason Weisman of Babson on Friday afternoon. Aizenberg then outlasted Jan Wenger of host Colby in the second round, 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) to reach the second day of action. In the round of 16, he rolled past Aidan Harris of Middlebury, 6-1, 6-2, but could not top another Panther player, 9-16 seed Stan Morris in the quarters, falling 6-4, 6-3. Morris went on to be the tournament runner-up.
In the doubles draw, Aizenberg and junior Anupreeth Coramutla of Princeton, Junction, N.J., were slated as the second seed. They edged Patel and Vergara of Bowdoin, 8-5, in the first round to advance to the second day of play. They reached the third round with an 8-3 win over Rhinelander and Ma of Amherst, but dropped a tight 8-6 match to eventual runners-up Sorkin and Belandres of Tufts in the quarterfinals.
The Brandeis men's tennis team returns to action October 5-6 at the Wallach Invitational at Bates College.
Aizenberg is a 2016 graduate of Highland Park High School.
Irwin is a 2016 graduate of Seton Hall Prep School.