WAC WOMENS TENNIS NOTEBOOK
PLAYER OF THE WEEK Rices Blair DiSesa has been named the Western Athletic Conference Womens Tennis Player of the Week for the week of March 14. This is her first honor of the spring.
DiSesa, a junior from Palm Beach, Calif., was dominant in the No. 1 singles spot, helping the Owls to upset No. 25 San Diego State and score a victory against No. 75 Yale. Against the Aztecs, she beat Alesya Vidov 6-0, 6-4. DiSesa then defeated the Elis Reshmi Srinath 6-2, 6-0. Rice defeated both San Diego State and Yale, 5-2.
OTHERS NOMINATED Boise States Megan Biorkman won all three singles matches this weekend against the No. 1 player from Idaho and the No. 2 players from Montana and Portland Fresno States won two more times in doubles and added an easy singles win for 40th-ranked Fresno State last week. A senior, Jantz, who with partner Lucia Sainz are ranked 22nd nationally, lost only seven combined games in wins over Gonzaga and Pepperdine.
ITA RANKINGS Fresno State, the three-time defending conference champions, were the highest ranked WAC school in the latest ITA rankings with a No. 21 ranking. They were followed by Rice (36th), SMU (50th) and Tulsa (55th).
WAC TOURNAMENT TO BE HELD IN HONOLULU This season, the Western Athletic Conference Tournament will be held in Honolulu, Hawaii on the campus of the University of Hawaii, April 21-24. The 2004 champion, Fresno State, will look to win its third-straight title.
NOTES FROM AROUND THE LEAGUE
Boise State defeated Idaho 5-2 Sunday afternoon in the Appleton Tennis Center for the Broncos' third win in a row for the weekend. Boise State defeated Montana and Portland on Friday and Saturday. In the other women's match Sunday, Portland defeated Montana 6-1. This coming weekend, the Broncos will travel to Texas to play Rice, Sam Houston State and Tulane.
Fresno State continued its up and down trend by posting an easy 7-0 sweep of Princeton on March 16 at the Wathen Tennis Center. The 43rd-ranked Bulldogs (5-5) have alternated wins and losses in the past seven matches, dating back to a 4-3 victory over Oklahoma State on Feb. 25. They have also won 17 of their past 19 contests at home. Fresno State was never in trouble against the Tigers (4-5), who are in the midst of a five-match West Coast road trip during their spring break.
Hawaii defeated Utah State in decisive fashion with their second consecutive 7-0 victory. The Rainbow Wahine move to 5-9 with the win, while future WAC-member Utah State drops to 4-6. UH took all six singles matches, losing only one set on the afternoon. Fitzgerald, who is ranked eighty-fourth in the most recent ITA rankings, defeated Bennion convincingly in the featured match 6-3, 6-1. At No. 2 Sylvia Jaros had the hardest fought match of the day, but earned the point with a 10-8 super tie-breaker after winning the first set 6-3 and dropping the second 2-6. The Rainbow Wahine will try for their third-straight of a five game home-stand on Mar. 21 against Cornell.
Louisiana Tech Louisiana Tech picked up a split of its Texas road trip Sunday as the Tennis Techsters took a 6-1 win over the University of Texas-San Antonio. Tech had fallen 4-3 in a tight match to Texas State, but moved to 6-4 on the season with the win over Texas-San Antonio. UTSA (1-7) picked up its only point by winning the No. 4 singles match as Tech won two of three doubles matches to open by picking up the doubles point and then took five of six singles matches. Tech returns to action on March 18 with a match at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock.
Nevada will take on San Jose State in WAC action. The Wolf Pack and the Spartans will meet in Los Gatos, Calif. on March 18. It will be the third WAC match of the season for the Pack. Nevada has WAC losses to Boise State and UTEP. The Wolf Pack will try to win its first game after being shutout by both the Broncos and the Miners.
Rice had a couple firsts occur this week. With the men occupying the 26th spot in this weeks rankings and the women coming in at 29th, the Rice tennis teams are simultaneously ranked in the top 30 of the ITA national poll for the first time. The ITA first expanded its national poll from 25 to 50 teams in 1994. The field grew to 75 in 1997. This marks the highest ranking for the Rice womens program since December 1996 when the Owls ranked 28th in the preseason poll. Led by Blair DiSesa, who was named the WAC player of the week this week, the Owls have risen from their preseason rank of 67 by defeating 55th-ranked Tulsa, 25th-ranked San Diego State and 75th-ranked Yale in consecutive road matches. In addition to their upset of the Aztecs, the Rice women aslo defeated then-23rd ranked Louisiana State.
San Jose State picked up a road win defeating Sonoma State 5-2 to improve its record to 3-7 overall. The Spartans dominated winning two out of three doubles matches and four out of six singles matches. In doubles action No. 2 Elke Harms and Roxanne Larijani won 8-3, at No. 3 Courtney Koenigsfeld and Ashley Tavita won 8-2. Singles No.2 Koenigsfeld won 6-0, 6-4, No. 3 Harms won 2-6, 6-3, 6-2. Also No.4 Tavita won 6-2, 6-1, and at No. 5 Kathy Van won 6-1, 6-1. The Spartans return to action Thursday March 17, to face Eastern Washington in Los Gatos, Calif.
SMU was defeated by No. 18 Baylor on Wednesday, 6-1, at the Baylor Tennis Center. The Bears swept the doubles point to jump out to the early lead and kept the momentum in singles play to secure the victory. SMUs record falls to 8-7 with the loss. Svetlana Kouzmenko could not overcome her ankle injury suffered against Houston on Sunday and retired her match at No. 1. Baylor was also dominant at Nos. 2-5, winning each match in straight sets. The only Mustang point came from Halley Rambally at No. 6, as she rallied to defeat Caroline Korsawe in a super tie-breaker 1-6, 6-3, 1-0 (9).
UTEP ran its home record to 4-0 with a 5-2 win over Northern Arizona at the El Paso Tennis Club Saturday morning.
The Miners improved to 5-4 on the season as they won their third consecutive match. NAU falls to 0-9. UTEP will return to action when it travels to California for its spring break trip. The Miners will face UC-Santa Barbara, Cal Poly and Wisconsin, March 18-21.
Tulsa head coach Paige McMurray returned to her alma mater as her Golden Hurricane women's tennis team faced #37 San Diego State at the SDSU Tennis Stadium. McMurray's trip home did not have a happy ending as the Golden Hurricane lost its 10th match of the season to #37 San Diego State, 4-3. TU is now 7-10 on the season, after losing two of three matches on the west coast tour. Tulsa will enjoy some needed time off in preparing for in-state rival Oklahoma State, Tuesday, March 29 at 2 p.m.