The No. 1 seeded Sacramento State men’s tennis team (20-5, 9-0) won the Big Sky Championship on Sunday.

The top two seeds had byes for the first day of the tournament.

The No. 3 Eastern Washington Eagles (13-11, 7-2) shut out the No. 2 Montana Grizzlies (11-9, 6-2) 4-0 to advance to the Big Sky finals.

A day earlier, Eastern Washington eliminated No. 6 Weber State and ended a 0-22 drought at the Big Sky Championships.

Eastern Washington and Sac State met in both teams’ first conference match and the Big Sky final.

Sac State won the first set in every match against Eastern Washington.

Sac State won 4-0 in the semifinals against Northern Arizona.

Three singles matches were in third sets before play was suspended due to No. 2 Anton Stryhas clinching the finals berth for the Hornets.

Sac State got to play in its own backyard, but with that came a lot of expectations.”Of course there is pressure being the No. 1 seed and all, but you got to use it to your advantage,” Warwick Foy said.

According to College Tennis Online, Sac State had the 18th best recruiting class in the nation (Timothy Lantin and Xavier Barajas-Smith) this year and No. 1 for mid-majors.

Big Sky preseason polls had Sac State as the projected regular-season champs, which Sac State delivered with relative ease. Sac State did not drop a doubles point in conference play, while singles were an impressive 40-5.

Stryhas, Gabriel Loredo and Ramon Perez were 21-0 in singles against conference foes.

Since joining the Big Sky Conference in the 1996-97 season, the Hornets have won five Conference Championships, in 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2003.

The Big Sky champion didn’t automatically qualify for the NCAA tournament until 1999, so this year’s team marked the fifth time the Hornets faced off against the nation’s best tennis teams.

Sac State singles were led by freshman stars No. 1 Barajas-Smith, No. 2 Stryhas and No. 6 Lantin, and proven seniors No. 3 Loredo, No. 4 Perez and No. 5 Foy.

The six compiled a 104-31 record in singles play this season, including a team best 20-4 mark from Stryhas. Barajas-Smith is 19-5, Loredo 19-5, Perez 14-4, Foy 16-8 and Lantin is 16-5 in singles play.

The freshmen felt relieved that the tournament was finally here, but the seniors seemed a little sad that their Sac State careers were coming to an end.

Stryhas was excited about his first Big Sky tournament and soaked in the full atmosphere.

He checked out as many matches as possible and kept a close eye on the women, who also wound up winning the Big Sky Championships.

“We can share our success with (the women’s team), and I think they can play better after that,” Stryhas said.

On Friday, No. 4 Northern Arizona beat three-time defending Big Sky Champion and No. 5 seeded Montana State 4-2.

The Northern Arizona doubles wanted to build on its quick work of Montana State in doubles, but had all it could handle against the Hornets.

Assistant coach Kevin Kurtz gave the Hornets a jubilant pre-game speech.

“(Northern Arizona) want to beat us so bad. It’s going to be the hardest match in the world,” Kurtz said.

At No. 3, Perez and Foy played their semifinal match similar to their finals match against Eastern Washington, winning both 8-5. Perez and Foy have played all four years together, improving to 17-4 this season.

“We had good energy. We were pretty positive we would break at the end,” Foy said, commenting on the Eastern Washington match.

No. 2 Van Dillen and Barajas-Smith were up 4-1 while No. 1 Stryhas and Loredo trailed 5-2 before both matches took dramatic turns.

The Lumberjacks won eight of the 11 games in No. 2 doubles to defeat the Hornets 9-7 while the Hornets No. 1 stormed back to win 6 of the last 7 game to win 8-6 and the doubles point.

The win improved Stryhas and Loredo to 17-3 while Van Dillen and Barajas-Smith split the weekend for a 12-7 season record.

Van Dillen and Barajas-Smith played much better in the finals winning 8-4 and regaining their court positioning and net play.

Stryhas, who won the clinching semifinals, match credits most of his success to his coach, Slava Konikov.

They have had one of the closest relationships on the team. Konilov has been a father figure and a best friend to him, Stryhas said.

“I always listen to (Coach Konikov) and try to catch every word he says,” Stryhas said.

Sac State took advantage of the opening round bye, while its opponent had played since opening day of the tournament.

Sac State beat the Eastern Washington Eagles 6-1 in the first encounter. The seniors endured three years of Big Sky heartache and didn’t give Eastern Washington a chance at the upset. Loredo and Perez both won in singles against the Eagles while, Perez and Foy won in doubles.

“I hope this is the year. It’s going to be pretty nice to finish first and come out in style with the conference win,” Foy said prior to the Big Sky playoffs.

Stryhas is confident in the future of Sac State men’s tennis.

“We will win the Big Sky Championship all four years I am here,” Stryhas said.

The NCAA tournament begins May 11. Tyrone Bowman can be reached at [email protected]