The San Jose State women’s tennis team swept its doubles matches and dominated the singles contests in a 6-1 win over Sacramento State in the opening match.
“We told them that this team is never going to give up and you can see from those last two matches out there,” head coach Chad Skorupka said.
The Spartans took the doubles point in dominating fashion as the Hornets’ duos could not keep pace with SJSU.
The first win came from junior Savannah Sendar and freshman Rozalina Youseva against Hornets junior Jenna Dorian and sophomore Jayden Nielsen with a score of 6-0.
Senior Tamara Culibrk and junior Laura Malsert took the second match 6-2 against Hornets freshman Paige Alter and sophomore Megan Tagaloa.
The final doubles match was won by freshman Tess Menten and sophomore Alba Pedrero Galindo against Hornets freshman Grace Dodd and senior Ege Tomey with another score of 6-2.
“I think [the doubles point] really helped us a lot,” Culibrk said. “It gave us the confidence to go out in singles and play well and step up on the court and not back down.”
The Spartans lost their first singles set but went on to win the next five.
Sendar began the run of wins for the Spartans and defeated Hornets senior Tomey 6-0 and 6-4.
“I think it is very important to get some early wins,” Sendar said. “To get the energy from the other courts and confidence really helps when you’re out there.”
Malsert and Culibrk won the next two singles sets for the Spartans.
In the final two matches the Hornets would fight back and show resilience, making the sets close but ultimately falling short.
“Even though the match was already decided it’s very hard to compete when you know a team has won or lost,” Skorupka said. “Although it takes a little pressure away from us. [Sacramento State] stayed on it and showed that they were going to have a pretty good year.”
In the next set, Galindo fought hard to defeat Dorian with final scores of 6-7, 6-1 and a tiebreaker of 10-8.
Skorupka said, “I think the best point of [Galindo’s] match was at match point where she ran that ball down and hit that slice and [Dorian] was just so tired and all she did was change direction with a backhand slice across court.”
In the final singles set of the match, freshman Rozalina Youseva fought hard to come out on top to defeat Nielsen with final scores of 7-5, 5-7 and a tiebreaker of 11-9.
“You really want to please the crowd and give them some good tennis,” Sendar said. “So that’s what got me extra pumped up today. You never know how many people are going to come out but when you see that crowd you just want to give it 110% and play extra well.”
