Women's Tennis
#1 Fresno Pacific 6, #10 Concordia 3.
Box Score
Men's Tennis
#1 Fresno Pacific 6, Concordia 3.
Box Score
Women's Tennis
The women's tennis team followed up fyesterdays win in conference play by taking down #10 Concordia 6-3. Although today proved to be a much more difficult task for the Sunbirds.
After doubles play the Sunbirds were ahead 2-1, getting wins from Erika Januskova and Heidi Jackson at three doubles 8-0. Cristina Valladares and Yumiko Justin were just as impressive at number two as they too made light work of their opponents 8-1. However Sara Celma and Marie Boura were not able to complete the sweep of the doubles as they went down 8-5.
Starting singles play the Lady Sunbirds needed to win three of their upcoming singles matches to clinch the match. This was to be a tough task as Concordia were on form today.
After sharing the spoils of the bottom four singles matches in which FPU lost a closely-contested battle at number six, the score was 4-3 in the favor of the Sunbirds.
It was then left to the top two singles players to clinch the win. Both matches were tied at a set-all. But the #1 ranked Sunbirds showed their class in a pressure situation. Celma at #1 singles was able to close out her match 7-5 in the third set to clinch the win, while Valladares was able to find some inspiration at #2 and came through her tight match 7-6 in the third set. winning the deciding tie-break 7-4.
“The girls competed really hard to get the win today," said coach Neil Castro. "They played great doubles at two and three”
Men's Tennis
Taking on the #5 ranked Concordia Eagles, the men's tennis team looked to keep up their unbeaten run in GSAC play. They eventually emerged winners 6-3 in what turned out to be just as exciting as the women's match earlier in the day.
The Sunbirds missed Jose Hilla today and the doubles teams again had a different look to what we have seen earlier in the season. The change in the lineup did not throw the Sunbirds off, actually they were inspired as they swept the doubles in what proved to be some of the best doubles FPU men have played all year.
Playing at number one Kirill Sinitsyn and Xavier Smith took care of Berdai and Potapkin 8-4. The number two tandem of Jaime Sanchez-Canamares and Cledson Carvalho took a routine 8-3 win. Things went even better for Amarit Sanchez and Nathan Martinet as they won 8-2 which completed the 3-0 lead for the Sunbirds going into singles.
Singles, which is normally the stronger point of the men's tennis team, seemed to have some bad luck today. They lost three matches in third set tie-breaks. Smith at three and Carvalho playing two were the only players to have a match that was won in straight sets, which quickly clinched the win for FPU 5-0.
From there the matches seemed to go the wrong way as Sinitsyn, Martinet, and Sanchez-Canamares all suffered three set losses. In some consolation, Amarit Sanchez was able to recover from an opening set loss 0-6 to put that bad start behind him and move on to take the second set 6-2 and win the only third set tie-break of the day 10-6.
“The guys played flawless doubles but struggled through the singles," said coach Neil Castro. "But we played well enough to win.”
The men's tennis team will get a look at some NCAA D2 opponents over the spring break as they take on Western New Mexico and defending D2 national hampion, Barry, in San Diego next week.
