PETUKHOVA NAMED PLAYER OF THE MONTH
Fresno State’s Anastasia Petukhova has been named the Verizon Wireless Western Athletic Conference Women’s Tennis Player of the Month for November. This is the second honor of the season and eighth of her career for Petukhova.
A senior from Moscow, Russia, Petukhova earned a wild card selection for the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, where she upset the No. 1 player in the country, Maria Mosolova of Northwestern. She followed that by knocking off No. 17 Maria Sanchez of USC to advance to the quarterfinals, when she fell to No. 58 Denise Dy of Washington. Petukhova’s two wins at National Indoors gave her five victories over ranked opponents this fall. She has 103 career victories, 26 shy of Dora Djilianova’s (1996-99) school record of 129.
Other nominees included: Pichittra Thongdach of Boise State went 2-1 in singles at National Indoors, defeating No. 71 Ana Constantinescu of Oklahoma and Allie Will of Florida before falling to No. 4 Jana Juricova of California. She also competed in doubles at the tournament with teammate Lauren Megale, dropping a pair of matches to Top 10 opponents … Nevada’s Florence De Vrye reached the second round of the Cal State Northridge Matador Classic in singles and teamed with Emma Verberne to win the doubles title.
THONGDACH REACHES QUARTERFINALS AT INDOOR NATIONALS
Boise State’s Pichittra Thongdach advanced to the quarterfinal round of the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships before falling in the third round of the singles tournament. She opened the tournament with a 4-6, 6-0, 6-3 win over No. 71 Ana-Maria Constantinescu of Oklahoma, then defeated Allie Will of Florida, 1-6, 6-3, 6-0, in the round of 16. She then fell in the round of eight to No. 4 Jana Juricova of California, 6-3, 6-2.
PETUKHOVA UPSETS TOP-RANKED SINGLES PLAYER
Fresno State’s Anastasia Petukhova finished the fall portion of the season with a run to the quarterfinals of the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships. In the first round, she upset her best friend and the top-ranked player in the country, Maria Mosolova of Northwestern, 6-4, 7-5. The following day, Petukhova upset No. 17 Maria Sanchez of USC. The Trojan won the first set, 3-6, but Petukhova took the next two sets, 6-3, 7-5, to advance to the quarterfinals. In her second match of the day, she met Washington’s 58th-ranked Denise Dy, with the Husky picking up a 1-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory. The victory over Sanchez was Petukhova’s fifth win of the season over a ranked opponent.
NEVADA PAIR WINS DOUBLES AT MATADOR INVITE
Nevada’s Florence De Vrye and Emma Verberne took the doubles title at the Matador Invitational. The pair defeated Sarah Cassman and Hannah Drake of Air Force 8-4 in round one, then beat Cal State Northridge’s Doane Brooke and Anna Yang, 8-6, in round two. In the finals, De Vrye and Verberne defeated Michelle Murphy and Sofia Novak of UC Santa Barbara, 8-6, to win the tournament.
UH’S PINTEROVA EARNS WINS VS. STANFORD
In a dual against No. 13 Stanford, the UH duo of sophomores Barbara Pinterova and Alyssa Nafarrete rolled to an 8-3 victory over Logan Hansen and Carolyn McVeigh. In singles play, Pinterova outlasted Veronica Li, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 at the No. 3 court. Meanwhile, freshman Mari Tadaki gained a hard-earned 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over Natalie Dillon at the No. 6 court.
PIETZUCH CLAIMS SINGLES TITLE AT MATADOR INVITE
Boise State’s Marlena Pietzuch captured her first individual title of the fall, winning four matches on the way to earning the Flight B singles championship at the 2009 Matador Intercollegiate Invitational at Cal State Northridge. Pietzuch opened the tournament with a 6-2, 7-6 win over Hannah Dake (Air Force) in the round of 16. She advanced through the quarterfinals with a win over Debora Castany of Arizona (6-4, 6-4), before taking down Anna Yang (Cal State Northridge) 6-4, 6-3 in the semifinals. Pietzuch capped off the weekend with a win over Lais Ogata (Nevada) 6-7, 6-3, 6-3 in the final round.
Pietzuch also reached the final round of the Flight B doubles bracket, winning three matches with partner Rocio Frej to reach the championship match. Pietzuch and Frej beat Brianna McClintock and Vanesa Reibstein (CSU Stanislaus) 9-7, and Bryanna Ojeda and Asagi Onaga (UC Santa Barbara) 8-6, to advance to the finals. In the championship match, Pietzuch and Frej but fell just short of a win (8-5), losing to Nina Jaworowski and Whitney Paluch of Cal State Northridge.
WAC IN THE PRESEASON RANKINGS
In the 2009 preseason ITA rankings, the WAC has three singles players ranked. Leading the way at No. 22 is Fresno State’s Anastasia Petukhova, followed by Pichittra Thongdach of Boise State at No. 47. Rounding out the group is Renata Kucerkova of Fresno State at No. 51.
In doubles, Fresno State’s Petukhova and Kucerkova are the top ranked team in the country. Meanwhile, Lauren Megale and Thongdach of Boise State are ranked No. 33.
WAC TOURNAMENT TO BE HELD IN FRESNO
The 2010 WAC Tennis Tournament will be held April 29-May 2 in Fresno, Calif. The Bulldogs, winners of eight-straight WAC Tournament titles, defeated No. 2-seed Boise State, 4-3, in a match that came down to the last point to claim last year’s title.