Four players from Sacramento State’s women’s tennis team have been selected to participate in the Riviera Invitational Women’s All-American Championships beginning Thursday through Oct. 11 at UCLA.

The list of players competing in the tournament includes Clarisse Baca, Maria Meliuk, Aileen Tsan and Katrina Zheltova.

The four players qualified for the tournament based on their player rankings and will play in both singles and doubles matches.

The All-American Tournament is a single-elimination tournament. The first round matches are on Saturday and Sunday, followed by the second round matches on Monday and Tuesday. The first player to defeat their opponents in eight sets wins the match. Players who win their second round match will move on to the finals.

The tournament is meant to work as a tune up for 64 of the best collegiate tennis players in the country before the regular season begins. Forty women were invited to play in the tournament and 24 other women received at-large bids to fill out the bracket.

The Invitational will have singles matches and doubles play. Head coach Dima Hrynashka said he selected the partners’ teams based on the mix of the players’ style of play and mixed the teams up to see what worked best. In December, he will decide the final doubles teams.

“ITA-International Tennis Association select the best players in the nation (to compete in the All-American Tournament). The women’s draw is limited to the top 64 players in the country,” said director of tennis Bill Campbell.

Campbell said that there will actually be 128 players at the tournament because anyone can play in the pre-qualification round.

Meliuk is excited to compete in the tournament.

“Everyone is in good shape (and we’ve) been having tough practices,” Meliuk said.

Zheltova said she wants to play in the tournament to see how healthy she is after injuries forced her out of 11 matches last season.

“(When there is) nothing I can do for the team, it’s really hard,” said Zhelhtova who, though unable to play, accompanied the team on road trips.

Baca is Zhelhtova’s doubles partner for Saturday’s tournament. Baca said she loves to play doubles matches.

Sac State has been preparing for the upcoming tournament by practicing with new doubles teams to find the best combination of talent to win the Invitational.

For doubles games, the three women has been practicing volley shots combinations baseline volleys and have had practice matches once every week with the help of their Hornet teammates, in addition to improving their serving game for the Invitational.

Three weeks before the Invitational, the three women worked on rallies; now the tournament is a week away, they will focus more on scoring points and individual matches.

Baca said she has spent much of her time practicing her backhand shot for the tournament. She said her backhand gave her a lot of trouble last season and it is her weakest shot.

“I have also been working on being more patient, in order to give myself more opportunities for shots to win points and games,” Baca said.

She said she utilizes volleys to get the ball deeper into her opponent’s court, and gets kills with her forehand.

Last year was her first season playing tennis at Sac State.

“I was pretty good for a freshman,” Baca said.

Baca said her doubles partner, for the Riviera Invitational, Zhehtova, works well with her.

Zheltova said the hardest thing about playing doubles at the tournament will be to remember not to blame her partner for miscues.

“It is always useful in doubles matches to remember to stay positive and focused, most importantly, not get mad at your partner for missing a shot,” Zheltova said.

The women hope to represent the rest of their teammates well in the tournament. They all want to finish the upcoming season ranked in the top 64 so they can play in the Invitational again next year.

Jeondra Arrignton can be reached at [email protected]