April 24, 2018
Defending champion San Jose State University will face either host Boise State University or Colorado State University in a quarterfinal round match of the Mountain West Women's Tennis Championship, Friday, April 27, at 2:00 p.m. (MT) at the Appleton Tennis Center.
The Spartans (12-8) in dual matches are the #3-seed, the same seeding position they had a year ago emerging victorious in Las Vegas. San Jose State closed out the regular season with a 4-3 comeback victory at San Diego State, the championship's fourth seed.
"We needed that win against San Diego State to give us some confidence," said San Jose State head coach Chad Skorupka whose team ended a two-match losing streak with the win on April 21.
"We'll have two days of practice up in Boise where we can work on a few things. There will be a little more mental focus vs. on-the-court situations and we'll be looking for a battle from Boise State or Colorado State this Friday.
"We were the #3-seed last year and the #3-seed this year. Maybe it's a good luck seeding; we'll see."
San Jose State's top three singles players, senior Sybille Gauvain, sophomore Tamara Culibrk and junior Miyo Kobayashi, were members of the Spartans' conference championship team a year ago. Playing exclusively at #1, Gauvain leads the team in dual match singles wins with her 12-4 dual match record as part of her overall 17-9 mark in singles for the season.
For the season, Gauvain, a five-time All-Mountain West honoree in singles and doubles, has a combined 30-19 win-loss record and ranks fifth on the San Jose State career list with 130 victories.
Culibrk, playing #2, and Kobayashi at #3 each won a pair of singles matches at the 2017 Mountain West Championship and are coming off comeback singles wins at San Diego State. Each Spartan lost their first set and took the full three sets to emerge victorious. For Kobayashi, #7 on the San Jose State career victories list with 119, the win in San Diego was her first three-set singles win of the season in four tries after losing a first set.
Three from among freshmen Laura Malsert, Savannah Sendar and Jackie Wagner and sophomore Clara Mantaux will comprise the rest of the six-player singles lineup. Sendar had the best singles win-loss record among the four with a 17-7 mark. She was 12-1 combined playing either #5 or #6-singles.
Like most teams, a key for San Jose State will be the doubles point. The Spartans are 9-0 when they head into singles with a 1-0 lead and 3-9 when trailing going into singles play. Fortunately, San Jose State now has experience in come-from behind situations. In the team's last two wins over UC Davis and at San Diego State, the Spartans lost the doubles point, but came back triumphantly.
Should San Jose State win its quarterfinal round match, the Spartans would advance to the semifinal round on April 28 against either #2-seed Fresno State, #7-Air Force or #10-Utah State. The championship match and claim to the Mountain West's automatic berth in the NCAA Championships is Sunday, April 29, at 11:00 a.m.