2003 Big Sky Champions

The Sacramento State women’s tennis team will make its second-consecutive appearance at the NCAA Tennis Tournament as the Hornets face the University of Southern California in the first round on Friday, May 9, at 2 p.m. The winner of Friday’s match will then take on the winner of Cal Poly vs. Georgia Tech on Saturday, May 10, in the second round.

Sacramento State will take on the Trojans for the first time in program history. This marks the first time this season that the Hornets will face a team ranked within the top 10 by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.

Last season, the Hornets fell to Stanford, 4-0, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. It marked the first time in school history that the women’s team had entered the tournament.

A Look At The Big Sky Championships

Sacramento State went 3-0 at the Big Sky Championships on April 25-27, 2003, in Portland, Ore. This marks the second-consecutive year, and second time overall, that the Hornets have earned the Big Sky title.

Sacramento State swept Eastern Washington, 4-0, on Friday, April 25. The Hornets gained the doubles point as duos Margarita Karnaukhova/Ann Roslund and Petra Abraham/Cristina Rivieccio both defeated their opponents by an 8-1 score. Karnaukhova, Roberta Fessenko and Roslund all won their singles matches to wrap up the Hornet victory and enter the semifinal match.

For the second-consecutive year, Sacramento State faced Weber State in the semifinals of the Big Sky Championships. The Hornets swept the Wildcats, 4-0, on Saturday, April 26. Karnaukhova/Roslund and Abraham/Rivieccio again claimed the doubles point for Sacramento State. Karnaukhova, Roslund and Abraham all won their singles matches to put the Hornets into the final match.

Sacramento State defeated Northern Arizona, 4-3, in the finals for the second-consecutive season. The Hornets lost the doubles point to the Lumberjacks as Karnaukhova/Roslund were the only pair to win a match. In singles play, Karnaukhova was forced to retire to Marjolein Klompmaker after the first set, due to an injury. Fessenko, Roslund, Amanda Sanches and Rivieccio all defeated their singles opponents for a final score of 4-3, and the Big Sky Conference title.

2003 Season In Review

After claiming its second-consecutive Big Sky Conference title this season, the Sacramento State women’s tennis team, currently ranked 62nd by the latest ITA polls, will enter the 2003 NCAA Tournament with a 16-7 overall record.

The Hornets went on a five-match winning streak early in the season, only to have it be snapped by Div. II second-ranked BYU-Hawaii. The Hornets are currently on a four-match winning streak, with three of those victories gained at the Big Sky Conference Championships on April 25-27.

The 2003 team also set its sights on remaining ranked throughout the season and spent 11 of 15 weeks among the top 75 Div. I women’s tennis teams in the nation. The squad spent seven-consecutive weeks in the top 75 and was ranked as high as No. 62 on two seperate occasions. Margarita Karnaukhova, the first Hornet in school history to be ranked, ended the season as the 63rd-ranked woman in the nation.

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.

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.