Whanganui tennis standout Kyle Butters has turned in some very strong form in the early spring of tennis season at his Boise State University in Idaho.
As a freshman, having joined Boise on a full athletic scholarship, Butters was named the Mountain West men's tennis Player of the Week forhis success in matches played from March 23-30.
The Mountain West Conference is the various sporting codes contested between around a dozen schools in the western United States, all affiliated with the top NCAA Division I ranking.
Eight of those schools have tennis programmes, with Butters accepting the offer to join Boise last year so he could train under highly respected coach Greg Patton.
To be considered the best player for the week among all those school teams, Butters helped lead his Boise Broncos - the name all the university's sports teams carry - to away wins against UC Santa Barbara and California Polytechnic State University, both by 4-3.
Butters had a personal 3-1 record in doubles and singles play, with his only loss coming in the Santa Barbara doubles game, 7-5.
Playing in the No4 position, Butters made the clinching singles wins in both meetings, and against the Santa Barbara Gauchos he came from a set down and battled through three tiebreakers to defeat Anders Holm 6-7 (3), 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3) in the last match of the day.
Butters is the ninth player recognised as Player of the Week at Mountain West since January 20, with one player having won it three times.
