Minnesota junior Sebastian Gallego has been named the Big Ten men's tennis Athlete of the Week after defeating two nationally-ranked opponents last weekend.

Gallego, who entered last week ranked 80th in the nation, defeated 82nd-ranked Joshua Graves of Northwestern and 22nd-ranked Marek Michalicka of Wisconsin. He rallied after losing the first set in each match and improved to 17-10 for the season. Gallego is 5-7 against nationally-ranked opponents this season.

The Medellin, Colombia native, came back to beat Graves 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 in Minnesota's 5-2 win over Northwestern on Friday. He followed with a 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over Michalicka on Sunday as the Gophers lost to Wisconsin 5-2.

Gallego is the first Gophers' player to win the award since Ishay Hadash on March 3 of last season. It is Gallego's first career Big Ten Athlete of the Week honor.

The 37th-ranked Gophers are 11-9 for the season and 4-4 in the Big Ten. They conclude the regular season this weekend with matches on Saturday at Purdue and Sunday at Iowa. The Big Ten tournament will be April 29-May 2 at Indiana.