Bulldogs tennis teams take care of Pacific

By Maggie Thach

After last week’s disappointing loss to then-No. 38 Sacramento State, the Fresno State women’s tennis team looked to turn its last home match into a solid win before heading into the Western Athletic Conference tournament.

The Bulldogs faced the 56th-ranked Pacific Tigers in a match that had little postseason significance, but in the event of a loss, could possibly drop Fresno State’s ranking significantly. Fortunately for the Bulldogs, they breezed through the match, winning 7-0.

The 22nd-ranked doubles team of freshman Jelena Pandzic and Lucia Tallo took on Pacific’s Katharina Heil and Vana Mrazovic. The duo came out confident and didn’t let Pacific on the board until half way into the set. The final score was 8-2.

Following the lead of Pandzic and Tallo, the 54th-ranked duo of Lucia Sainz and Katharina Winterhalter picked up another 8-2 doubles victory.

“ We wanted to go into the WAC [tournament] with a win,” Winterhalter said. “This is the kind of team we’ll be facing.”

Courtney Jantz and Vlatka Jovanovic, at No. 3, completed the doubles sweep with an 8-1 victory over Pacific’s duo of Urska Dvorsek and Nicole Sakai.

The level of intensity carried over into the singles matches. Pandzic, ranked 12th in singles, and No. 82 Tallo sailed through their sets with identical scores of 6-1, 6-0. With the victory over Pacific’s Vana Mrazovic, Pandzic finished the regular season with a 19-1 record.

“ We’re trying to forget about last week,” Pandzic said. “We’re trying to stay focused, no matter what their ranking is.”

Pandzic seemed to hold a psychological edge over her opponent going into her singles match.

“ If we win easy in the doubles, they think, ‘they’re good players’” Pandzic said. “It’s important to win doubles for the psychological factor. You can also see their weaknesses and strengths.”

Tallo, her doubles partner, brought a different mentality to her singles match.

“ Every match is a new match,” Tallo said. “I think you have to forget about rankings.”

The other three singles victories didn’t come as easily. Winterhalter, at No. 3, fell behind early but fought back to win 6-4, 6-3.

Lucia Sainz, at No. 4, won a close straight set and No. 5 Jantz defeated Dvorsek in three sets.

“ I was tired and nervous, but I played really good at the end,” Sainz said. “She was always fighting. She wanted to play every ball.”

The superb all-around performance served as good preparation for the upcoming post-season.

“ I think this match will give us confidence,” assistant coach Simone Jardim said. “I think it prepared us mentally more than physically. This was definitely a good first step towards the postseason.”

The Bulldogs finished the regular season with an overall record of 17-3 and perfect 9-0 home record.

Men’s Tennis

Freshman Charles Irie pulled out a 7-6 (2), 4-6, 7-5 win at No. 4 singles to lead Fresno State to a 4-3 win over Pacific.

The Bulldogs lost two of three doubles matches and lost Nos. 1 and 2 singles. But Irie, Alex Krohn, Jakub Cech and Andy Sinn all won singles matches to push the Bulldogs to the victory.

The WAC tournament starts April 30 at Rice in Houston.