Matadors at Long Beach State Friday; UC San Diego Sunday

WHAT'S COMING UP FOR CSUN WOMEN'S TENNIS
DUAL 19
CSUN (14-4, 4-2 Big West) at Long Beach State (7-9, 3-3 Big West)
Friday, Apr. 14 • 2 p.m.
Long Beach, Calif.• Rhodes Tennis Center
Live Stats

DUAL 20
CSUN at UC San Diego (8-12, 1-6 Big West)
Sunday, Apr. 16 • Noon
La Jolla, Calif.• Northview Tennis Courts

In-game Twitter updates: @CSUNWTennis

FIRST SERVE
CSUN plays its final two road contests of the 2023 season this week. The Matadors travel to Long Beach State on Friday for a 2 p.m. matchup before heading to UC San Diego on Sunday at noon.

ABOUT LONG BEACH STATE
The Beach split a pair of duals last week. Long Beach State defeated Cal State Fullerton 4-2 on Friday before dropping a 4-3 decision at UC Santa Barbara on Saturday. The Beach is 7-9 overall and 3-3 in conference play.

Sheena Masuda's 15 singles wins (15-11) lead the team in the category. Rhona Cook and Peppi Ramstedt are a team-best 14-4 in doubles.

CSUN broke Long Beach State's string of 25 consecutive victories in the all-time series last season when the Matadors defeated the Beach 4-3 in Northridge. Long Beach State leads the all-time series 36-13.

ABOUT UC SAN DIEGO
The Tritons and the Matadors were to play on Feb. 26 in La Jolla, but rain forced the postponement until this weekend. UCSD enters the week with an 8-12 overall and a 0-6 conference record. UC San Diego hosts crosstown rival Pt. Loma Nazarene on Saturday before welcoming CSUN to the Northview Tennis Courts.

Katelyn Vu leads the Tritons in singles victories with 11 (11-8), while Vu and Rachel Wagner are the top doubles pair with an 11-7 record.

CSUN leads the all-time series against UCSD 9-1 and is 2-0 against the Tritons since UC San Diego moved to Division I.

THE LEAGUE RACE
With two weeks remaining in the regular season, the Matadors are in contention for the top seed in the Big West Championships. At 7-1, Hawai'i leads the conference, followed by UC Santa Barbara at 4-1.

CSUN, Cal State Fullerton, and Cal Poly are tied for third with a 4-2 mark. Long Beach State is 3-3, followed by UC Davis at 2-5. UC Riverside (1-6) and UC San Diego (0-6) round out the league standings.

All nine postseason-eligible Big West teams will head to the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego for the 2023 Big West Women's Tennis Championship Apr. 26-29. The nine-team bracket will see the 8 and 9 seeds play a first-round match on Thursday to advance to the quarterfinals, where the No. 1 seed awaits. The remaining quarterfinals will see the two-seed play the seven; the three-seed play the six, and the four-seed play the five.

The semifinals begin on Friday at noon, followed by the Saturday finals at noon.

TEAM LEADERS
Yuliia Zhytelna has recorded a team-high 12 singles victories (12-4). Angela Ho and Emma Moratalla Sanz have won 11 singles matches, while Sasha Turchak has 10 singles victories.

Zhytelna and Turchak have played together in 17 matches this season, posting a 12-5 record. Ho is 12-3 in doubles action. Playing with Ho, Jolene Coetzee is 10-3 in doubles play this season.

LAST WEEK
Cal State Fullerton defeated CSUN 4-3 in Big West women's tennis action Saturday afternoon at the Matador Tennis Complex.

Vitoria Solis Urdiales and Cindy Ung took the opening doubles match when they defeated Diana Yanotovskaya and Kaytlin Taylor 6-2. Then, Sasha Turchak and Yuliia Zhytelna clinched the doubles point at No. 2 with a 6-3 victory against Zoe Olmos and Milena Gevorgyan.

Geyorgyan tied the dual when she defeated Angela Ho 6-3, 6-4 in the opening No. 4 singles match. Then, Taylor earned the lead for the Titans with her 6-4, 7-6 (7-2) victory versus Emma Moratalla Sanz at No. 5. Yanotovskaya put Cal State Fullerton up by two when she defeated Zhytlena in three sets, 0-6, 6-2, 6-3.

Turchak made it 3-2 when she took a pair of tiebreakers (3 and 5) against Natalie Duffy at No. 2. Cal State Fullerton clinched the dual at No. 1. With the match tied at one, Olmos was awarded the victory when Jolene Coetzee was forced to retire, trailing 4-0. Tallia Harper returned from dropping the opening set tiebreaker to Marila Nikitash to win the No. 6 match 6-1, 6-0.

~#UniteTheValley~

Matadors at Long Beach State Friday; UC San Diego Sunday

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Players Mentioned

Jolene Coetzee

Tallia Harper

Angela Ho

Emma Moratalla Sanz

Vitoria Solis Urdiales

Sasha Turchak

Cindy Ung

Yuliia Zhytelna