SIX TENNIS PLAYERS WILL REPRESENT SACRAMENTO STATE AT THE ALL-AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS

9/7/2007

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The Sacramento State men’s and women’s tennis program will be represented by a school-record tying six players at this year’s Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) All-American Championships.

Sophomores Xavier Barajas-Smith and Anton Stryhas, and freshman Kiryl Harbatsiuk from the Hornet men’s team will participate in the Polo Ralph Lauren Men’s All-American Championships, to be held Sept. 29-Oct. 7, at the University of Tulsa.

Juniors Luba Schifris and Anastassia Lyssenko, as well as sophomore Katrina Zheltova will represent the Hornet women’s team at the Riviera/ITA Women’s All-American Championships (Sept. 29-Oct. 7) in Pacific Palisades, Calif. Prequalifying rounds will be played at UCLA, while the qualifying and main draw rounds will be played at UCLA.

The premier hard court event of the fall collegiate season which features the top players in Div. I, Barajas-Smith, Stryhas, Harbatsiuk and Lyssenko were each slotted into the prequalifying singles rounds and will begin play on Sept. 29 at their respective tournaments. Zheltova was inserted into the qualifying singles round and will begin play on Oct. 2. Zheltova will also appear in the prequalifying doubles draw with teammate Schifris.

The main draw (Oct. 4-7) of both tournaments is preceded by two sets of qualifying tournaments. Both the men’s and women’s 128-player pre-qualifying tournaments are set for Sept. 29-30, and 16 players will advance to the 128-player qualifying tournaments (Oct. 1-3). Sixteen players then advance from the qualifying tournament to the main draw with 48 other players who are at-large selections.

Sacramento State also had six players named to last year’s event, including Barajas-Smith and Stryhas on the men’s side, and Schifris, Lyssenko, Aileen Tsan and Joyce Martinez Gutierrez on the women’s side. The combinations of Lyssenko/Tsan and Schifris/Martinez represented Sacramento State in doubles play. Schifris was the only women’s player that was slotted into the singles bracket, while both Barajas-Smith and Stryhas competed in singles play at last year’s tournament.

Both the Sacramento State men’s and women’s tennis teams won the Big Sky Conference championship and advanced to the NCAA Tournament last season. Zheltova, Lyssenko and Schifris played at Nos. 1, 2 and 3, respectively, in the Hornets’ singles ladder last season. Barajas-Smith and Stryhas played at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, for the men’s team and Harbatsiuk is the new to the program this year. Zheltova and Barajas-Smith were named the Big Sky Conference women’s and men’s MVPs, respectively, last season.