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Tennis, golf, rowing round out spring sports schedule

Sacramento State’s golf, tennis and rowing teams have begun their quest for post-season play, building on strong finishes in 2008. Prospects look good for the teams with a mix of new and returning players.

MEN’S TENNIS
Sacramento State returns its top four singles players, juniors Anton Stryhas and Holden Ching, and sophomores Kiryl Harbatsiuk and Artur Klimenka, from last season’s team. The team finished 15-8 overall and won the Big Sky Conference’s regular season championship with a perfect 8-0 mark. Stryhas is the reigning Big Sky MVP, while Harbatsiuk and Klimenka were named first team all-conference. Since joining the Big  Sky in 1996-97, the Hornets have won seven league titles (1998-99, 2001-03, 2007-08) and have advanced to the NCAA Tournament five times (1999, 2001-03, 2007).

WOMEN’S TENNIS
The No. 42 ranked Hornets won their seventh straight Big Sky Conference title last season, earning their seventh straight trip to the NCAA Tournament. They will once again be led by the number one singles player, junior Katrina Zheltova. She became the second Sacramento State women’s tennis player to gain All-America status during the program’s Division I era (1991-present) after reaching the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Singles Championships a season ago. Sacramento State also has a pair of doubles tandems ranked by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. The duo of junior Aileen Tsan and freshman Gayane Sarkisian are ranked 54th nationally, while the team of junior Joyce Martinez Gutierrez and redshirt freshman Clarisse Baca is ranked No. 4 in the Northwest Region.

ROWING
Winners of two of the last three Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association team championships, the Sacramento State women’s rowing squad begins its season on March 7 at Santa Clara. The Hornets, under seventh-year head coach Mike Connors, will return 26 student-athletes from last year’s squad, which saw its varsity eight, second varsity eight and novice combine to post a 14-5 dual-meet record. Last year also included a pair of medals at the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association championships and a silver medal at the Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia.

WOMEN’S GOLF
The Hornets will attempt to win their second Big Sky title in the past three years when they compete at the conference tournament in April. Sacramento State ended the fall portion of its schedule in strong fashion, placing second at the Cal Poly Invitational. The spring half of the schedule features the team hosting the Sacramento State Invitational at Valley Hi Country Club March 23-24.

MEN’S GOLF
The men’s golf team claimed the America Sky Conference championship in the fall and will look to continue its momentum during the spring. Senior Scott DeBorba and junior Grant Norton were each named all-conference after placing second and third, respectively. As a team, the Hornets won the title by 19 strokes over second-place Hartford. The Sacramento State roster also features three local freshman who have all contributed this season, twin brothers Grant and Cameron Rappleye and Jake Johnson.