Brandes Lands Big Sky Weekly Honor

Niklas Brandes, Big Sky Player of the Week

Photo by: Kelly Gorham

4/23/2013 12:50:00 PM | Men's Tennis

After leading the Bobcats to a league title, Brandes was named co-Player of the Week

By: Bill Lamberty

On Sunday, Niklas Brandes helped Montana State win a share of the Big Sky Conference regular season championship by dominating his No. 1 singles match and winning at No. 1 doubles against Idaho State. On Tuesday, the league rewarded him with co-Player of the Week honors.

Brandes shared the award with Montana's Michael Facey, who won a narrow three-set decision at No. 2 singles, and also at won No. 2 doubles, against the same Idaho State squad.

The Bobcat soph. from Nordenham, Germany, accounted for half of MSU's wins in the 4-1 victory, which sealed the Bobcats first regular season title since 2006. Brandes' 6-0 win in the first set against ISU gave him his first such triumph since a match against Southern Utah in February, but he has come up huge in the most important stretch of the Bobcats' season. Brandes earned an easy 6-3, 6-4 win against Montana two weekends ago to set up its championship opportunity last week.