April 3, 2008
The Santa Clara women's tennis team begins a three match road trip this Friday with a West Coast Conference match up at Gonzaga. The team will be in non-conference action for the rest of the weekend as they face Idaho on Saturday and Washington State on Sunday. Both matches will be played at Washington State.
SCU enters the weekend with a 4-11 overall record, after being edged out by WCC rival Portland 4-3 on March 27. Carmen Pham and Lindsey McBride earned hard fought singles victories against the Pilots while the Galainena/Pane and Davoudi/McBride teams earned the doubles points with 8-0 and 8-6 winning efforts, respectively.
Scouting the Bulldogs
The Zags are on a two match win streak with victories over Weber State 6-1 and UC Santa Cruz 7-0. Junior Aglaya Kokurina posted her eleventh singles win of the spring season over UC Santa Cruz's Jessica Ruth 6-1, 6-1 on March 24. Freshman Rika Mehndiratta has been a strong competitor for the Bulldogs and has won two consecutive singles matches.
The Broncos posted a strong 5-2 victory over the Bulldogs in last February's matchup. Myra Davoudi, Casey Knutson, Kim Daniel, and Stephanie Galainena all earned singles wins and Barnes/Knutson and Daniel/Davoudi duos earned the Broncos the doubles win. This match was also head coach Ben Cabell's first match as head coach.
Scouting the Vandals
The Vandals have won two consecutive matches, most recently against Weber State 6-1 to improve to a 9-8 overall record. Idaho's doubles team of Natalie Kirch and Basia Maciocha are 6-1 on the season. Maciocha has also won nine out of her last 10 singles matches, defeating Weber State's Inalisa Pienaar 6-3, 7-6.
The Broncos' last matchup against Idaho was on April 5, 2003 in Fresno, Calif. The Vandals defeated the Broncos 5-2. Casey Knutson and Nicole Jackson earned points for the Broncos.
Scouting the Cougars
The No. 40 ranked Cougars are going into a six match home stand this coming weekend, but are coming off of a tough loss to Pac-10 rival Oregon on March 23. Senior Ekaterina Burduli has struggled in recent matches, but has been a consistent strong singles threat, posting a win over UC Santa Barbara's Marta Simic 6-2, 6-4.
Last time, the Broncos fell to then No. 44 Washington State 6-1. Highlights included a singles win from Casey Knutson over WSU's Amy Toth 7-6, 6-0 and an Erika Barnes and Casey Knutson doubles win over WSU's Burduli/van de Ven duo 8-7,(7-3).
