NO. 50 WOMEN'S TENNIS FALLS TO NO. 10 STANFORD

4/1/2009

STANFORD, Calif. - The No. 50 ranked Sacramento State women's tennis team dropped a 6-1 non-conference decision to the Stanford Cardinal on Wednesday, April 1, at Taube Family Tennis Center.

With the loss, the Hornets fall to 12-8 on the season, while the Cardinal improve to 13-3.

The Hornets held their own in doubles competition against two highly ranked Stanford tandems. The No. 78 ranked combo of sophomore Melissa Valenzuela and junior All-American Katrina Zheltova dropped the No. 1 doubles decision to 11th ranked Hillary Barte and Lindsay Burdette of the Cardinal, 8-4. The other two doubles matches came down to the wire, ending in scores of 8-6. The first of those to finish saw freshman Maria Meliuk and junior Aileen Tsan fall to Logan Hansen and Veronica Li at the No. 3 position. No. 2 doubles saw a near upset, as the No. 57 ranked team of Carolyn McVeigh and Jessica Nguyen had their hands full with redshirt freshman Clarisse Baca and senior Joyce Martinez Gutierrez before defeating the Hornet duo also by an 8-6 margin.

In singles play, the Hornets posted their lone point as Meliuk upset No. 122 Lindsay Burdette at the No. 2 position 6-1, 1-6, 1-0 (10-8). Meliuk trailed 5-2 in the super-tiebreak before rallying to take a 7-6 lead, a lead she would maintain for the duration of the set. A native of Minsk, Belarus, Meliuk improved her record 13-3 in singles play on the season, and posted her first career victory over a ranked opponent.

In other singles competition, Baca fought valiantly at the No. 4 position before falling to Li, 6-2, 6-4. Stanford held serve in the remainder of the singles matches to pick up the victory.

The Hornets return to action on Friday, April 3, as they take on Idaho State and Weber State in Big Sky Conference action. Sacramento State (5-0) leads the Big Sky conference this season, and has won 58 straight matches inside of conference competition.


#10 Stanford 6, #50 Sacramento State 1
Apr 01, 2009 at Stanford, Calif. (Taube Family Tennis)

Singles competition
1. #11 BARTE, Hilary (STAN) def. #110 ZHELTOVA, Katrina (SAC) 6-1, 6-1
2. MELIUK, Maria (SAC) def. #122 BURDETTE, Lindsay (STAN) 6-1, 1-6, 1-0 (10-8)
3. #83 NGUYEN, Jessica (STAN) def. TSAN, Aileen (SAC) 6-1, 6-0
4. LI, Veronica (STAN) def. BACA, Clarisse (SAC) 6-2, 6-4
5. McVEIGH, Carolyn (STAN) def. MARTINEZ, Joyce (SAC) 6-2, 6-1
6. YEN, Jennifer (STAN) def. ZIVANOVIC, Milica (SAC) 6-1, 6-2

Doubles competition
1. #11 BARTE, Hilary/BURDETTE, Lindsay (STAN) def. #78 VALENZUELA, Melissa/ZHELTOVA, Katrina (SAC) 8-4
2. #57 McVEIGH, Carolyn/NGUYEN, Jessica (STAN) def. BACA, Clarisse/MARTINEZ, Joyce (SAC) 8-6
3. HANSEN, Logan/LI, Veronica (STAN) def. MELIUK, Maria/TSAN, Aileen (SAC) 8-6

Match Notes
Sacramento State 12-8; National ranking #50
Stanford 13-3; National ranking #10
Order of finish: Doubles (1,3,2); Singles (1,3,6,4,5,2)