The Sacramento State men’s and women’s tennis teams look to continue their dominance over the Big Sky Conference this season. The men and women have both been picked in the preseason coaches poll to finish first.

Last season the women’s team won it’s sixth consecutive Big Sky championship and Director of Tennis Bill Campbell is confident the women can retain the title.

Coach Dima Hrynashka led the Hornets to a 17-7 record last year, including a perfect 7-0 in the Big Sky.

Six players form last season’s team have returned this year to give the Hornets a solid foundation, especially Katrina Zheltova , the Big Sky Most Valuable Player from last season.

Team captains Luba Schifris and Joyce Martinez Gutierrez, both juniors, are confident in the team’s chances to repeat their success from last season. They have individual goals as well as team goals.

“To be top 30 would be great,” Martinez Gutierrez said. “Team spirit and unity are strong.”

Doubles play is always critical, especially in close matches and Schifris and Zheltova look to form a potent doubles team this season.

The team likes its chances to improve its rank by matching up with quality teams in tournaments. As the Hornets beat higher-ranked teams they will probably see its own ranking improve.

“We can be better than last year,” Schifris said. “We have a good chance to be higher up in the rankings.”

Schifris enjoys playing home games because of the familiarity with the courts and the fans that show up to cheer for them.

“The team just needs to come through and win as many matches as possible,” Schifris said.

Some important matches this season will be March 22 against Texas and April 13 against UC Berkeley. These schools will be tests to see how the Hornets match up with elite tennis teams in the country.

Campbell said the men’s team has a lot of success to build on from last season and they appear hungry for another winning season. They have new blood on the squad this year, but early season victories show the men are capable of matching their accomplishments from last year.

Coach Slava Konikov has national coaching experience in Belarus and coached the Hornets to a 20-6 record in 2007, their best performance since 2001 when the team went 20-3.

“I think we can, definitely,” assistant coach Kevin Kurtz said. “We’ll try to get our team ranked again and get some of our players individually ranked.”

Sophomore Anton Stryhas and freshman Kiryl Harbatsiuk have looked sharp so far this season and Kurtz credits their success to their extensive training. Harbatsiuk is in his first year with the team and has already impressed.

“Kiryl beat five guys from the Pac-10,” Kurtz said.

Stryhas and Harbatsiuk play doubles together and the duo has been victorious in both their matches this year.

Sophomore transfer Hoden Ching scored a decisive victory against Oregon, proving to be a clutch performer to his new team.

“It was a pretty big one for us because we lost to them last year,” Ching said.

The roster also includes junior Sven-David Rueff and freshmen Ronan Conlon and Artur Klimenka.

With six of the last 10 Big Sky championships belonging to the Hornets they are the team to beat in its conference.

The schedule includes several tough match-ups with highly ranked teams this season. Such a challenging schedule is an opportunity for the Hornets to prove themselves.

“We have lots of good teams like New Mexico and Texas-Arlington so it’s going to be tough for us,” Stryhas said.

The Hornets have two more away matches before playing UC Davis at home Feb. 23 at Rio Del Oro Racquet Club at 1 p.m.

The women took on UC Santa Barbara and UC Davis on Saturday where the Hornets beat both team 6-1 and 5-2, respectively.

Cameron Ross can be reached [email protected]