After falling behind early in a 3-0 doubles sweep, the Sacramento State women’s tennis team dropped Saturday’s Causeway showdown 4-3 to rivals UC Davis.
The match marked Davis’ (2-1) eighth victory over Sac State (1-2) in any sport out of the 10 meetings between the schools since Sept. 2.
“It was nice to win the dubs point because we hadn’t won one (this season),” said Davis coach Bill Maze.
Sac State junior Ana Loaiza Esquivias, named last week’s Big Sky Player of the Week, took an early lead alongside freshman Karina Vyrlan but ultimately lost the No. 1 doubles match to Davis junior Kristy Jorgensen and sophomore Kelsie Bryant.
Hornet senior Andie Mouzes and redshirt freshman Carolina Chernyetsky dropped the No. 2 doubles match 6-3, while sophomore Sofia Wicker and freshman Sofia Gulvona lost by the same margin at No. 3.
“The doubles started off pretty quick … but then kind of fell out a little bit,” Sac State assistant coach Eric Roberson said. “We definitely need to work on our crossing (and) our team meshing together.”
The Hornets and Aggies split the singles matches, as Sac State fell one win short of a comeback. Esquivias remains undefeated in No. 1 singles play (3-0) after defeating Jorgensen in straight sets, 6-4, 6-1.
Wicker and Mouzes both played close matches, but failed to force tiebreaker rounds. Mouzes fell 6-3, 6-2 to junior Jessie Lee, while Wicker dropped her sets 6-4, 6-1 to freshman Kristina Breisacher. Aggie freshman Nikita Pradeep made quick work of Chernyetsky, winning 6-0 in straight sets.
Sac State saw strong singles performances from its freshmen, as Vyrlan beat junior Lani-Rae Green 6-4, 6-1, and Gulvona prevailed 6-2, 6-1 over senior Samantha Martino.
“During the doubles match my mentality — something went wrong,” Gulnova said. “I was not in a good mood but for my singles match I just decided to stay positive and just focus on every single point, not on the score.”
After playing on the campus tennis courts for the first time since 2014, the Hornets will hit the road next Saturday to face the University of Arizona. The next day, they will take on the University of Texas at El Paso in Tucson.
