The No. 46 Sacramento State women’s tennis team upset No. 31 Fresno State 4-3 at the Wathen Tennis Center in Fresno this Saturday, raising its record to 9-3 on the season. The duel was a rematch of last year’s NCAA Tournament, when Fresno State dropped Sac State in the first round.

The Hornets played spoilers to Fresno State’s 15-match home court win streak, despite starting things off with a doubles point loss. The comeback victory over the higher-ranked Bulldogs has the Hornets poised for a climb in the rankings.

Sacramento State has made a habit of taking the doubles point to start things off this year, taking the extra confidence of a head-start into the singles round. The Bulldogs wouldn’t give it up this time around, snagging two of the three doubles matches.

Despite the fall, coach Bill Campbell has been pleased with the overall performance of his doubles teams, adding that the teams are starting to jell.

“Our doubles are starting to play better, even though I know we lost today,” Campbell said. “We had some problems earlier in the year because we didn’t have everybody we needed at the beginning of the semester.

“Now we do and play is improving.”

In singles 19th-ranked Margarita Karnaukhova kept on rolling, downing Katharina Winterhalter 6-2, 6-3 at the one to improve to 11-1 this year. At the two, Anna Erikson did the same, dropping Lucia Tallo 6-1, 1-0 (retired due to injury) to put her season mark at 9-2.

At the four, Sac State’s Klara Petersson bombed Courtney Jantz 6-3, 6-2, clinching the crucial fourth point and the victory for the Hornets. Reigning Sac State Athlete of the Week Cecilia Helland continued to sparkle, trouncing Masiyazi 6-3, 6-2 at the sixth spot.- She improved to 11-1.

Rigorous matches and a tough schedule are taking a toll physically on the girls as they continue to win in the face of aches and pains.Helland gave the injury rundown.

“Anna’s (Erikson) hip flexor and back are not very good, Roberta and Anna K. have been a little bit sick, they had to miss practice … Klara has had a back injury,” Helland said. “I guess Rita (Karnaukhova) and I are the only two with no problems right now.

“People were injured last year too, playing so much, I don’t know.- But it is to be expected … we play a lot … but all teams have injuries.”

—————————————————————————-

Josh Terrell can be reached at [email protected]