Cal Poly had a dominating performance at home against the Cal State Northridge on Saturday with a decisive 7-0 victory.
The Mustangs (2-0, 1-0 Big West Conference) won all six singles matches and two out of three doubles matches. At No. 1 singles, junior Suzie Matzenauer easily defeated Evgeniya Vertesheva 6-2, 6-0. Her record is now an impressive 12-3, with a number of victories against players ranked by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. Matzenauer is ranked among the top 20 in the nation.
“You come out every match being really resilient and working on every point,” Matzenauer said. “Good things come when you keep hitting for your shots and keep going for your shots. I went out there to play every point tough and I did that.”
At No. 2, junior Brittany Blalock dispatched Nina Jaworowski 6-2, 6-2. Senior Maria Malec beat Nigora Sirojiddinova handily with set scores of 6-2, 6-0. Overall, Cal Poly’s singles players did not drop one set. No. 4 Whitney Peterson had a long, grueling match against Nigora Sirojiddinova, but was victorious at 6-4, 6-4.
The Mustangs’ only loss was at No. 1 doubles. Blalock and junior Steffi Wong lost 8-6, which was a surprising result considering the duo is well regarded and was seeded at No. 4 in the Northwest Championships last October. The Mustangs still edged out the Matadors in doubles with wins coming from the remaining doubles teams.
At No. 2, Matzenauer and sophomore Amy Markhoff won 8-5 and at No.3, Malec and junior Diane Filip won 8-6.
The Mustangs have clearly improved as a team this season. Last season they lost to the Matadors 3-4 and the year before they lost 2-5. The Matadors’ roster has not changed much this season.
The Matadors dropped to 0-3 with the loss.
The Mustangs face No. 5 Stanford next week. Head coach Hugh Bream is hopeful.
“I feel like the girls have been working really hard and I’ve seen improvement out of every player on the team,” Bream said.