Senior Kiryl Harbatsiuk made the first appearance by a Sacramento State player at the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Tennis Championships on Nov. 4th.

The tournament was being held at the new indoor facilities at the USTA-Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

Georgia Tech’s Guillermo Gomez, the fourth-ranked player in the nation and the No. 6 seed, fell to Harbatsiuk who was ranked 75th, in the first round of the tournament Thursday morning by a score of 3-6, 7-5, 6-4.

The win over Gomez marked the first victory against the highest ranked opponent a Sac State player has ever defeated.

Today Harbatsiuk advanced to the Round of 16 and came out victorious against the 20th-ranked player in the nation, Vanderbilt’s Ryan Lipman 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-3.

Two hours later Harbatsiuk was back on the court to face 21st-ranked Rhyne Williams of Tennessee in the quarterfinal round.Harbatsiuk was en route to defeat his fifth straight nationally ranked opponent but fell short against Williams 6-4, 2-6, 6-3.

Harbatsiuk who is a native of Minsk, Belarus earned a berth into the 32-player field after becoming the first player to win the ITA Northwest Regional Championship two weeks ago.

Including this tournament he had won eight straight matches against top ranked competitors and he was 6-0 in the regional tournament until this afternoon.

Alyssa Huskinson can be reached at [email protected]