Around Town: Former Corona del Mar star Bjorn Hoffmann earns tennis honor with UC Irvine

Bjorn Hoffmann, a Corona del Mar High product who is now a graduate student at UC Irvine, earned his second straight Big West Conference Men’s Tennis Player of the Week award for the week that ended Feb. 14.

Hoffmann beat nationally ranked August Holmgren of the University of San Diego, 6-3, 7-5, in a road match on Sunday, keeping the Anteaters alive in the match before USD won, 5-2.

Hoffmann is now 2-1 on the year in singles, playing each match at the No. 1 position.

He is the first Anteater to win back-to-back men’s tennis conference player of the week honors since Victor Lamm in 2008.

Longtime Orange County Breaker Nicole Gibbs announces her retirement

Gibbs, 27, played for the Breakers for four seasons. While with the franchise, she earned World Team Tennis Female MVP honors in 2016.

Known for her scrappy play, season-ticket holders named Gibbs their favorite Breaker of all time in a 2018 survey.

Gibbs, a former NCAA singles champion at Stanford whose career-high singles ranking was 68, recovered from oral cancer in 2019 and played with the Breakers that summer.

She said on social media that she plans to enroll in law school this fall.

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