Lauren RabainoThe Cal Poly women’s tennis team will play its first Big West Conference dual matches of the season this weekend, visiting UC Irvine at 11 a.m. Saturday and Cal State Fullerton at 10 a.m. Sunday.
“It’s going to be really competitive against those two teams,” Mustangs head coach Hugh Bream said. “The Big West is probably the fifth-toughest conference of the 31 conferences. It’s obviously very meaningful.”
Cal Poly (2-4) hasn’t played this week after a four-match losing streak.
In spite of the losses, the Mustangs’ doubles tandem of Brittany Blalock and Steffi Wong is ranked No. 22 and has a 3-2 dual record. In singles, Diane Filip is 4-1.
“The break couldn’t have come at a better time for us,” Bream said. “We went to Oregon in good health but came back a little beat-up. We’ve taken this time to get healthy and do quality training before going into this weekend.”
UC Irvine (0-2) enters the weekend ranked No. 36, while Cal Poly is slotted 68th, respectively. Cal State Fullerton is unranked.
The match against UC Irvine will be the first conference showing for both teams. Cal State Fullerton, meanwhile, lost to No. 38 Long Beach State 7-0 last Friday.
“We’ve been getting better consistently,” Bream said. “The schedule we have played has really prepared us for entering the Big West Conference.”
Men’s tennis team falls at Pepperdine
The Cal Poly men’s tennis team lost its second match of the spring season Thursday, falling 5-2 at No. 21 Pepperdine.
In singles, Cal Poly’s Robert Foy edged Brian Broghan 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, and Drew Jacobs also earned a win for the Mustangs (3-2), topping Johannes de Villiers 7-5, 6-4.
Foy and Darryn Young lost their first dual match of the spring, coming up short against James Lemke and No. 13 Bassam Beidas 8-3.
Cal Poly plays at San Diego at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
Women’s basketball team stays in third place
The Cal Poly women’s basketball team topped UC Irvine 84-65 Thursday night to stay in third place in the Big West Conference.
It was the second victory in six games for the Mustangs (9-13, 6-3 Big West), who swept the Anteaters (6-17, 2-7) this season.
Cal Poly visits Cal State Fullerton at 5 p.m. Saturday. Cal State Fullerton (7-14, 5-4), now in fifth place, fell 72-63 to first-place UC Santa Barbara (14-6, 9-0) on Thursday.-
Agnus-Dei Farrant and Donovan Aird contributed to this report.