The Sacramento State women’s tennis team starts the week on the road as the Hornets prepare for the Big Sky Conference Tournament on April 24-27. The team will travel to Southern California to face Loyola Marymount (Tuesday, April 15) and Pepperdine (Wednesday, April 16) for the first time in program history.

The Hornets return home to host Utah on Friday, April 18, at Rio Del Oro Racquet Club in Sacramento, Calif. This also marks the first time that the two teams have met in program history.

Sacramento State will find a familiar face as it travels to San Jose State on Monday, April 21, to take on the Spartans at Los Gatos Swim and Racquet Club at 2 p.m. The Hornets hold an 8-5 record when playing San Jose State and look to extend their two-match win streak against the Spartans. Last season, Sacramento State swept San Jose State, 7-0.

A Look At Last Week

Sacramento State went 2-0 last weekend as the Hornets defeated local rival UC Davis, 5-2, and swept Hawaii-Pacific, 7-0.

The Hornets won five of the six singles matches to defeat the Aggies at Spare Time Indoor Courts. Sophomore Roberta Fessenko, junior Petra Abraham, sophomore Amanda Sanches, sophomore Cristina Rivieccio and junior Yasmin Kashef all earned victories towards the final score. Junior Ann Roslund was forced to retire to UC Davis’ Gretchen Schantz early in the match due to a sprained ankle.

The Hornets also played host to Hawaii-Pacific during the weekend. Sacramento State swept the Sea Warriors, 7-0, despite the absence of freshman Margarita Karnaukhova to lead at the No. 1 slot. Karnaukhova has been forced to sit out two weeks of play due to an injured back. Roslund returned to the courts at the No. 2 slot for the Hornets after limited play due to a sprained ankle. The Bastad, Sweden, native paired with Kashef to win their first doubles match of the season.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

Despite injuries to the No. 1 and No. 3 players, the Sacramento State women’s tennis team has remained the favored team to win the 2003 Big Sky Conference tennis title. The squad has posted a 12-5 record on the season as it looks towards the final four matches before the Big Sky Championships in Portland, Ore., on April 24-27.

The 2003 season has been plagued with injuries that have taken No. 55 Margarita Karnaukhova, Ann Roslund and Amanda Sanches off the courts throughout the season. Sanches suffered a knee injury at the beginning of the season and Roslund is still recorvering after an offseason shoulder surgery.

Currently, Roslund looks to return to the ladder after limited play during the past five matches due to a sprained ankle. Karnaukhova has been forced to sit out the past five matches due to an injured back. Karnaukhova and Roslund hold a 9-3 record as the No. 1 doubles team, and look to return to the courts before the end of the season. Despite all the injuries, the Hornets have posted a 4-1 record without Karnaukhova.

Head Coach Bill Campbell

Bill Campbell, a well-known figure in the Sacramento region tennis circles, begins his fifth year as the women’s head tennis coach at Sacramento State. During the past four seasons, Campbell has coached Sacramento State to a record of 1-15 in 1999, 5-15 in 2000 and 11-10 in 2001. The 2002 squad then posted a record of 20-4, which marked the best season record for the Hornets in program history. The team also established the program’s best Big Sky Conference finish with a record of 6-0. Campbell currently holds an overall record of 49-48.

Originally a student at the University of California, Campbell turned down a full-ride scholarship to play tennis for the Bears, choosing instead to compete one year for Coach Jack Jossi at Sacramento State. The Hornets’ No. 1 singles player as a junior, he chose not to compete as a senior while preparing for the CPA exam.

While working on a master’s degree at Sacramento State, Campbell wrote a paper on tennis and swim clubs, traveling the state to interview club owners. Upon graduating with an MBA in financial management, Campbell took the lessons from those interviews to heart and opened his first club, the Rio Del Oro Racquet Club, in March of 1973.