Lynch Earns Big West Player of the Week Honors for First Time
4/8/2026 4:30:00 PM | Women's Tennis
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — For the first time in her career, junior Natalie Lynch has been named the Big West Women’s Tennis Player of the Week, the conference office announced Wednesday.
Lynch is the second Mustang to win the award this season, joining Kennedy Buntrock who received the honor on Jan. 28.
The praise for the Corona, Calif. native comes after a strong showing this past week in a pair of home victories over ranked opponents. In a 6-1 victory over No. 64 Long Beach State last Tuesday, Lynch earned a 6-4 win at the No. 2 doubles spot with Candela Aparisi to help the duo improve to a team-best 9-5 this season and 3-0 in conference play. Then in singles, she earned a comeback victory at No. 5, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, to clinch the dual win for the Mustangs.
Lynch capped off a perfect week in singles play by capturing a dominant 6-0, 6-1 win at the No. 4 spot in a thrilling 4-3 victory over No. 73 Hawai’i this past Thursday. She improved to a team-best 10-5 in singles matches this spring and 4-1 in Big West play.
Cal Poly travels to Southern California this week to face Cal State Fullerton at 11 a.m. Friday and UC Irvine at 11 a.m. Sunday in its final two regular season road matches. The match with Cal State Fullerton was moved from Saturday to Friday due to expected weather. With a pair of victories this week, the Mustangs could lock up a top two seed in the Big West regular season standings and a double bye to the semifinals of the conference tournament.
