DAVIS, Calif. -- UC Davis freshman Everett Maltby was named the Big West Conference men's tennis athlete of the week on Wednesday, after posting a pair of wins to help lift the Aggies to two upsets of ranked conference opponents and attain its highest-ever national ranking.

Following its victories over then-No. 49 Cal Poly and then-No. 65 UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis jumped 15 spots to a program Division I-best No. 53 according to most recent Intercollegiate Tennis Association's poll released on April 14. The Aggies, who finished with a perfect 8-0 mark at home this season, improved to 15-4 overall and remained unbeaten in league play with a 3-0 record heading into this weekend's matches at UC Irvine and UC Riverside.

The 15 wins stand tied for fourth on the Big West single-season list, are the most for the program in the Division I era, and are the most in the single-season since UC Davis finished 15-3 in 1993.

Since making its debut in the polls at No. 72 back on Feb. 3, the Aggies have been left out of the rankings only once, and bested their previous high ranking of No. 64 back on Feb. 25. UC Davis is 4-2 against nationally ranked teams this season, winning their last four such matches, and have faced seven teams currently ranked in this week's poll: No. 24 Stanford, No. 28 California, No. 50 Cal Poly, No. 54 Rice, No. 55 San Francisco, No. 70 UC Santa Barbara, and No. 75 Loyola Marymount.

A big part of that success has been the play of Maltby, who wrapped up a pair of three-set victories at No. 5 singles to help the Aggies top the Mustangs and Gauchos and earn his first career Big West Athlete of the Week award. He opened the weekend by defeating Cal Poly's Naveen Beasley, bouncing back from a second-set loss to outlast the Mustang (year), 6-4, 4-6, 7-6. A day later, Matlby topped UCSB's Erik Johnsson, 5-7, 7-5, 6-2, to clinch UC Davis' 4-3 win over the Gauchos.

The victories pushed the freshman to 23-7 overall on the year and 12-4 in dual matches, standing tied for first on the team in overall wins and second in dual match triumphs.

Maltby becomes the third UC Davis player to earn weekly honors from the conference office, joining teammates James Wade (Jan. 21) and Brett Bacharach (Feb. 25).

The first-place Aggies head to Southern California to close out the regular season, traveling to UC Riverside on Saturday (April 18) and UC Irvine on Sunday (April 19). Both matches begin at 11 a.m. at their respective sites.

They are the final tune-ups before the Big West Conference Tournament, which will be held on April 23-26 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, California. The top two teams in the standings earn first round byes, beginning play on Friday, April 24, with the championship match held on Sunday (April 26) at 9 a.m.