The Sacramento State women’s tennis squad beat the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks handily 7-0 Sunday afternoon.

Head coach Dima Hrynashka’s girls faced a little adversity with two matches being decided in a tiebreaker.

The Hornets seemed a little fatigued from its 6-1 defeat over the University of Nevada on Saturday.

“We may have been a little tired from yesterday, anyways they did fantastic,” Hrynashka said.

The action at the Spare Time Indoor Tennis Center began with doubles play. Sac State gained the lead over the Lumberjacks by scoring the doubles point.

Katrina Zheltova and Melissa Valenzuela won their battle 8-6. “(Melissa and I) practice hard everyday. We played calm. Everybody came and cheered for us. It was very helpful,” Zheltova said.

The Hornets’ duos all played smart, aggressive tennis. Its other two pairs won 8-3 and 8-4, respectively.

Freshman Maria Meliuk had one of the most exciting games of the day during singles play.

Meliuk’s showdown with Edit Suhajda went to a third set, in which Meliuk won 10-8.

“I was fighting to the end. Even though I was losing 5-0, I was still keeping myself in the game. I changed my game. I started to attack more. I changed the game to my strengths,” Meliuk said.

Senior Luba Schifris had an easier time with her opponent during singles play. Schifris won in straight sets 6-0, 6-0.

“Joyce Martinez (Gutierrez) and Luba Schifris are two seniors, did great and want to show their best this year,” Hrynashka said.

Sac State is ranked 43rd nationally. It is safe to say that the Hornets success on the court can be attributed to its camaraderie off the court. “Everyone is so friendly, we help each other during matches we scream ‘go, you can do it’ it is very helpful,” Zheltova said.

Sacramento State has won 54 straight Big Sky Conference competitions.

Even with his team’s success, coach Hrynashka understands there is still work to be done.

“Today was a great game, (but) everybody has something to improve,” he said. Some girls need to improve their shots; (mainly), they need more experience.” The Hornets (2-0, 5-0) must travel to Seattle to take on the 36th-ranked nationally Washington Huskies, who will be eager to break Sac State’s consecutive match streak.

Andrew Hazard can be reached at [email protected]