Continuing its winning ways, the Sac State men?s tennis team went to Hawaii and came back with four wins. Sac State was able to defeat all four of its opponents, pushing its record to 8-1 on the season.

Sac State was able to defeat Hawaii 4-3, Xavier 6-1, Villanova 7-0, and closed its matches out with a 4-3 win over Nebraska.

Head coach Chris Evers thought that some of the competition was tougher than others, while they were able to dominate the other teams.

“The University of Hawaii was real tough, and the University of Nebraska was extremely tough,” Evers said. “We were able to dominate Xavier and Villanova.”

In between two close matches, Sac State was able to have two lopsided victories against Xavier and Villanova.

In the win against Xavier, the Hornets were able to win the first five singles matches in a somewhat easy fashion. In the number one singles match, junior Sherif Zaher defeated his opponent 6-3, 6-4, while Chris Smith, who was named Big Sky Conference Tennis Player of the Week, won 7-6, 6-4. In the doubles portion, the Hornets did not lose a match and won the doubles point.

The following day, Sac State defeated Villanova 7-0 and went undefeated in singles and doubles play. Junior Fabio Jesus and senior Smith teamed up to win their doubles match, putting them at 7-0 in doubles competition this year.

Starting off the trip for the Hornets, the team defeated Hawaii 4-3. Sac State was able to win the number one, five, and six singles matches. Zaher, and seniors Joseph Gilbert and Kevin Vieira won their singles matches. The three combined to win all four of their singles matches during the trip, going a perfect 4-0.

“Our five and six singles players are Nails (Gilbert and Vieira). They won?t lose too many matches,” Evers said. “Zaher is always a tough player. He will face some good opponents playing as the number one player.”

Sac State was able to win the doubles point and get the victory over Hawaii. All three doubles teams were able to defeat their opponents.

Evers believes that the doubles teams, who went undefeated on the trip, are playing well.”Our doubles teams are very good,” Evers said. “It is our strong suit, and I think they are starting to gel, I feel pretty confident with our doubles teams.”

The Hornets would finish its weeklong trip facing Nebraska and winning once again by the score of 4-3. Again the Hornets were able to get victories in singles play by Zaher, Gilbert and Vieira. In doubles play, the Hornets gained the doubles point when the number one and three doubles team were able to defeat their opponents 8-6 and 8-4. The number two doubles team did not finish, but Sac State had already gained the point, enabling the team to win 4-3.

Sac State will now play its next two games at home, starting out with Saint Mary?s Saturday afternoon.

Evers believes that the team has begun to get into a rhythm, now that the team is beginning to play more games as the season progresses.

“The more matches we play, the better we will play,” Evers said. “The consistency of our play will improve with the more matches we play. Every match is pretty critical.”

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