CSUN Upends Dartmouth To Improve To 11-2

NORTHRIDGE, Calif. --- The CSUN women's tennis team (11-2) defeated Dartmouth 4-3 Wednesday afternoon at Matador Tennis Complex. Facing the Big Green in their annual meeting in the San Fernando Valley, the Matadors finally defeated nationally-ranked Dartmouth behind two wins in doubles and three singles wins.

Located in Hanover, New Hampshire, Dartmouth College has played and won at CSUN every year in women's tennis since at least 2008. This year, the Big Green carried a No. 29 national ranking (of 320 Division I women's tennis programs) and 13-1 mark into Wednesday's contest coming off wins against a pair of ranked opponents in Denver and UC Irvine.

The Big Green also won the Eastern College Athletic Conference Indoor Championship earlier this year, a collection of the top teams in the Ivy League.

CSUN clinched the victory behind some timely doubles play and perseverance in singles action. To open the match, the Matadors won two of the three doubles contests to take an early 1-0 lead.

Kiryang Kim and Vivian Lin posted an 8-4 victory in the second draw and Criss Rodriguez and Jessica Warren secured an 8-2 decision to give CSUN the 1-0 advantage.

Kim, Poei and Warren then won in singles action to give the Matadors the final edge. Kim and Poei both rallied from a set down to win in three sets while Warren posted a tiebreaker in the first set to gain momentum for a 6-1 victory in the second.

"This is an over-the-hump win for us. Dartmouth is a Top 30 team. We have talked about believing that we can beat any team on our schedule and this is a high quality win for us," CSUN head coach Gary Victor said. "We played with great energy in doubles and James and I were excited to see that. In singles, we overcame some first set losses and showed resiliency in winning some three setters. It is a great sign of things to come."

The Matadors will look to keep the momentum going this Saturday when it faces another ranked opponent, Long Beach State. First serve from Long Beach is slated for noon.

Doubles

1. Ng/Crawford (DC) def. Hsu/Poei (CSUN) 8-4

2. Lin/Kim (CSUN) def. Yau/Kiven (DC) 8-4

3. Warren/Rodriguez (CSUN) def. Okuda/Schroeder (DC) 8-2

Order: 3,1,2

Singles

1. Ng (DC) def. Hsu (CSUN) 6-3, 6-1

2. Yau (DC) def. Lin (CSUN): 6-1, 7-5

3. Crawford (DC) def. Rodriguez (CSUN): 6-1, 6-4

4. Kim (CSUN) def. Okuda (DC): 1-6, 6-3, 6-1

5. Poei (CSUN) def. Schroeder (DC): 2-6, 6-0, 6-4

6. Warren (CSUN) def. Bessen (DC) 7-6, 6-1

Order: 1,3,2,4,6,5

Next Event

Team Stats

Players Mentioned

Kiryang Kim

Vivian Lin

Criss Rodriguez