For the second consecutive week, Northwestern State has won the Player of the Week with Ela Iwaniuk taking home the honor this week.
This is the second Player of the Week honor for the senior, winning once in 2018. It is the first time the Lady Demons have won the award in back-to-back weeks since 2018 when they won three times in a row. Iwaniuk was in the middle of that trio.

“This is a well-deserved honor for Ela this past week,” head coach Patric DuBois said. “She played solid and steady against very tough competition.”

Mariella Minetti earned the honor this past week.

Iwaniuk, a senior from Konarskie, Poland, had a convincing victory to begin the weekend at No. 2 singles against Southern Miss’ Katia de la Garza. Iwaniuk dispatched the previously unbeaten de la Garza in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2.

On Sunday, she and fellow senior Emilija Dancetovic came back from a 4-1 in doubles against UTSA to emerge with the victory 7-5 and clinching the doubles point for the Lady Demons. That was proceeded by another straight sets triumph.

Iwaniuk won in decisive fashion against UTSA’s Laura Cabrera, winning 6-3, 6-3, to finish a perfect weekend.

She leads the Lady Demons into conference play, which begins Friday at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi before traveling to Lamar for a match Sunday.

Photo Credit: Chris Reich, NSU Photographic Services