April 21, 2004

Columbia, MO--Mizzou's Yelena Olshanskaya was honored as the Big 12 Tennis Player of the Week after a tremendous weekend helping the Tigers defeat Iowa State and Kansas.

The freshman has been a major factor in Mizzou's second consecutive winning Big 12 record (6-5) --the Tigers' first in Big 12 history. Mizzou has won its last four Big 12 matches over Kansas, Iowa State, Nebraska and Kansas State.

This last weekend, Olshanskaya won both her singles and doubles matches to pace Mizzou's wins over Iowa State and Kansas ks. She and doubles partner, Erika Josbena, defeated Iowa State's Beth Chermel and Danielle Uscinski 8-4, and Kansas's Emily Haylock and Ashley Filberth 8-5 the next day.

In singles play, she was dominant defeating Iowa State's Beth Chermel 6-1, 6-0. She then clinched Mizzou's team win over Kansas with her 6-4, 6-4 win over Jayhawk Kristen Steinbock.