The first of two games at the Golden State Invitational ended with Sacramento State’s men’s tennis winning 4-0 against Hawaii.

The Hornets had slight difficulty defending their home courts with seniors Jiri Novak and Jan Silva winning their doubles match, followed by seniors Mark Keki and Mate Voros winning to give Sac State their first point.

“We knew coming into the match that we were favorites and our goal was just to take care of business,” Novak said. “Proud of the boys to take it seriously.”

Sac State’s previous match against Weber State, was played indoors, which might have proven to help the team as they reacclimated back to playing outdoors on Sunday, March 3.

“It’s a lot faster,” Keki said. “It’s hard to adjust.”

Keki is the reigning Big Sky player of the week and his performance during the doubles match was a demonstration of why he deserves that title.

Keki had hit the ball so hard all his opponent could do was watch helplessly as the ball flailed more than 10-feet high over the fence and into the street.

Sac State men’s tennis head coach Kevin Kurtz praised Keki’s doubles performance.

“There was a point in the doubles, where he single-handedly put eight really good shots in a row,”Kurtz said.

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The Hornets moved onto the singles matches with freshman Michael Kaplan winning his match first, followed by sophomore Adam Chodur and then Novak to clinch the win.

Although the score of this matchup looked as if Sac State had full control of the match, it does not tell the full story.

Hawaii was able to get some of Sac State’s players off kilter throughout the matchups by screaming after every game that went in their favor.

Early in Novak’s second set, he struggled with some of the shots Hawaii’s sophomore Sohta Urano was giving him. In order to win his set and match, Novak had to win five straight games.

“The first set came pretty easily, let’s say, so I just had to regain my focus and start dominating again in the second set,” Novak said.

Part of Novak regaining his focus was inspired by Kurtz.

“I talked to Jiri Novak, he was doing some drop shots and stuff and we worked on another plan for those balls to be more aggressive,” Kurtz said.

On a roster full of upperclassmen, Chodur stood out by finishing first in the singles and his steady improvement since he had been on the team.

“He’s got his camera out, to videotape himself everyday,” Kurtz said. “Guys will say, ‘Hey, show me that point in the third set, was that ball in or out,’ when they play in practice matches, so he’s always trying to get better.”

Keki did not finish his singles match, but was locked in a tough matchup against Hawaii’s redshirt junior Quinn Snyder.

The first set was swiftly taken by Keki, but he lost momentum in the second, which led to a lot of victory screaming from Snyder.

“I played really well all the way, until maybe the middle of the second set,” Keki said. “I saw some of the other guys were close to winning, so I kind of mentally just switched out.”

The win was clinched with Kaplan, Chodur and Novak winning their singles matches, leaving Keki, Voros and Silva’s matches unfinished.

With a flurry of Big Sky Conference opponents coming up in the future, Sac State will need to stay focused if they want to keep on winning.

Their next conference matchup is against Northern Arizona University on Friday, March 15.