Sacramento State’s women’s tennis team won its sixth straight Big Sky Conference Tournament on Sunday at Gold River Racquet Club.

The Hornets faced off against the University of Northern Arizona and were victorious 4-0.

Sac State freshman Katrina Zheltova and sophomore Luba Schifris teamed up in doubles play and defeated the Lumberjacks’ Katie Schurr and Leslie Vial 8-4. With the win the Hornets clinched the doubles point.

Sophmores Aileen Tsan and Anastassia Lyssenko defeated Patrice Biemold and Susan McClelland 8-1. The last of the three doubles team was senior Cecilia Helland and sophomore Joyce Martinez Gutierrez against Regan Newman and Paij Porter. This match did not finish because of the early wins by the other two doubles teams for the Hornets. The Sac State tandem was leading 6-3 when play stopped.

Hornets’ Director of Tennis Bill Campbell said he thought both of the Hornets’ doubles teams seemed a little nervous to start, but the singles team played particularly well.

Sac State’s dominating singles play eventually was enough to earn the four necessary points to obtain the condensed victory. Zheltova, Lyssenko, and Schifris were the first three to finish, clinching the win for the Hornets.

Zheltova defeated Biemold in the No. 1 slot in consecutive sets 6-0, 6-1. Lyssenko defeating Schurr 6-2, 6-1 in the No. 2 slot and Schifris clinched the Big Sky Championship when she took out Vial 6-2, 6-2 in the three slot. Martinez Gutierrez, Helland, and sophomore Karina Jarlkaganova all were leading their matches when Sac State clinched the victory.

With the win Sac State improved its record to 17-6 overall, and has impressively won nine out of its last 11 matches. The win for Sac State gave the team an automatic berth into the NCAA tournament, marking the sixth straight year the team secured a trip to the NCAA tournament. The selections and seedings for the 2007 NCCA tournament will be decided on Tuesday, determining who the Hornets will play in the opening round.

As the senior leader, Helland said she will be not changing much to get ready for the NCAA tournament.

“I want to just keep doing what I’m doing, work hard and compete,” Helland said.

Helland’s leadership and experience will be vital to the Hornet’s NCAA run, because this Sac State team knows the level of expectations will only be increased as postseason play begins.

“It’s not over yet, and we need to practice hard because the top 20 teams play extremely hard, we need to play even better to win in the NCAA tournament, said Freshman Zheltova.”

NCAA tournament play begins on Friday, May 11th.