Old rivalries, new rankings on the line
Sheena Nguyen
March 13, 2008
Photo by John McLellan.
Freshman Vanja Radunovic was first to finish for UW in the match against the Ducks on March 1. Radunovic won her No. 5 singles match 6-4, 6-2 in the 6-1 win for the Huskies.
In the Apple Cup of tennis, the No. 37 Washington women’s tennis team will host the No. 34 Washington State Cougars at the Nordstrom Tennis Center friday at noon.
The Huskies are recovering from a tough road trip to the Bay Area last weekend, where they lost to Top-10 schools, USC and UCLA. Now that it’s back with home court advantage, Washington looks to exert its dominance once again against rival WSU.
Freshman Venise Chan (41) will lead the Huskies this weekend after putting up the team’s only point last weekend against USC by upsetting yet another ranked opponent.
The Cougars also have their leading player in the rankings with senior Ekaterina Burduli (44) playing at the number one singles spot.
This rivalry match should be very closely contested if history plays any part. The schools split victories in their two meetings last season and are both 0-4 in the Pac-10 this year, which means records and rankings are on the line today.
“Over the years, no matter the rankings, we have always had great matches,” UW coach Jill Hultquist said. “But we are expecting a win.”
Following the women’s match, the Washington men’s tennis team, which has been climbing the rankings to No. 23, will battle it out against Eastern Washington University at 4 p.m., also at the Nordstrom Tennis Center.
Though the Huskies are riding a five-match winning streak after a straight-set sweep last weekend against the University of the Pacific, the EWU Eagles will come into this match on a program-best nine-match winning streak.
History is on Washington’s side, though, with the Huskies leading the all-time series 5-0 and most recently topping the Eagles 6-1 in last year’s season opener.
The Huskies have a solid lineup going into this match, but the pack is still being led by junior Patrik Fischer, who has played 12 out of 14 matches at No. 1 this season and went 2-0 last weekend, upsetting 19th-ranked Andre Begemann of Pepperdine at the top spot.
In doubles, the No. 3 team, consisting of freshmen Martin Kildahl and Tobi Obenaus, has been the most reliable duo. They extended their personal winning streak to seven last weekend.
“Our doubles play has definitely improved,” coach Matt Anger said. “We are doing better, but we still have room to continue improving.”
The men will look to continue their winning streak tonight in their last match at home until Pac-10 play begins.
[Reach reporter Sheena Nguyen at sports@thedaily.washington.edu.]
Comments
Post a comment
You are not currently logged in. You must log in using your Facebook account to post a comment. It's fast, easy, and we don't store any of your personal information, except your first and last name when you post a comment.
Why?
Our old comment system was abused to leave racist, sexist, fradulent, or simply useless comments. We're hoping this verification step will improve the quality of our comments.
I don't have a Facebook account. I'd like to verify my identity using my MySpace/Google/Yahoo!/OpenID/SSN/주민등록번호/MasterCard.
Let us know. We're open to suggestions. Over the next few weeks, we'll be testing other authentication methods.
The FBI/CIA/TSA/CoS/Emmert is out to get me! I need to stay anonymous!
We're working on a way to allow this. If you have any ideas, email us.
I think this website is ugly.
It's going to be a work in progress all summer, so it may look and act differently from week to week. If you want to influence this process, email us. We read every email, and respond to most of them.