Sacramento State’s men’s tennis team swept No. 2 Eastern Washington Eagles 4-0 and the women swept No. 2 Northern Arizona Lumberjacks 4-0 to earn their Big Sky titles today at the Gold River Racquet Club.

Both teams had byes on the first day of the tournament Friday and the men defeated No. 6 Montana 4-3 to advance to today’s final round and the women swept No. 5 Eastern Washington 4-0 Saturday.

The men won their second and third doubles matches against the Eagles: junior Holden Ching and sophomore Marko Starcevic won their match 8-4 and freshman Jason Smith and sophomore Artur Klimenka won 8-5. The pair of junior Anton Stryhas and sophomore Kiryl Harbatsiuk did not complete their doubles match but they were in the lead 6-3.

“Doubles was interesting for us,” Harbatsiuk said. “We broke them once in the beginning and they we were trying to keep our serves.”

In singles action, Harbatsiuk rallied from a 5-2 deficit in the first set of his match to 7-5 against Nico Riego de Dios. He won the second set 6-2.

Smith earned an easy victory over Panhara Man 6-0, 6-2 as well as Klimenka 6-1, 6-2 over Daniel Pez.

The rest of the singles matches were unfinished but they were all close. Stryhas was leading 6-4, 4-2 against Art Karas, Kyle Schraeder was leading against Starcevic 6-1, 5-6 and Julian Sanchez was leading against Ching 6-4, 5-6.

“The guy I played against was a fighter,” Stryhas said. “He never gave up and I give a lot of credit to Eastern Washington since they weren’t used to the weather here and the sun worked against them.”

The men remained undefeated for the year in the Big Sky Conference 10-0 and improved their overall record to 19-6.

The women won two out of their three doubles matches today against the Lumberjacks. Junior Katrina Zheltova and sophomore Melissa Valenzuela defeated Orsi Golovics and Edit Suhajda 8-4 after breaking a 4-4 tie earlier in the match. Senior Joyce Martinez and freshman Clarisse Baca defeated Leslie Vial and Kim Van Ginkel 8-5.

Juniors Luba Schifris and Aileen Tsan were behind 6-4 against Yumi Hasegawa and Stacey Pinchbeck before the match was stopped (the stoppage occurred because the first two Hornet doubles team already earned their victory).

Tsan has been paired with freshman Maria Meliuk throughout most of the season, but Meliuk is still recuperating from her back injury.

The Hornets earned three easy victories in singles competition. Tsan defeated Hasegawa 6-0, 6-1, Martinez defeated Pinchbeck 6-2, 6-0 and Zheltova won the winning match 6-0, 6-4 against Suhajda. Both the men and women hope to advance past the first round and be ranked nationally.

“We will face tough competition in the NCAA finals,” Harbatsiuk said. “If we face a top seed like Stanford, then so be it. It doesn’t matter who we play, we have to play tough.”

Director of Tennis Bill Campbell said that the Hornets will most likely get a tough first round draw, but he is still confident that both teams can perform well against their tougher opponents.

As the Hornets prepare for the NCAA tournament, Campbell said that both teams, especially for the women, are working on their doubles play.

Martinez, who is playing her last tournament of her Hornet career, wants to continue being involved with tennis any way possible.

“I would like to become a tennis coach and just find ways to stay connected with tennis since I’ve played tennis all my life and it’s tough to let it all go.”

Martinez was thankful for all the experiences she had with her teammates and coaches.

“I take all the words of wisdom from director Bill Campbell, I take all the things that my coach has told me, all the great matches, everything, it was a great experience. I also want to give a special thanks to Bill, Dima and Gerry, they’ve been like my family to me.”

The Hornets begin the first round of the NCAA tournament May 8. The opponents and site are to be determined.

Nick Hunte can be reached at [email protected]