Women's Tennis Match 5

Saturday, February 3 vs Cal State Fullerton @ 11 am Riverside, CA

Riverside, CA— The UC Riverside Women's Tennis Team (1-3) takes on Cal State Fullerton (2-1) Saturday, February 3 at 11 am on the SRC Tennis Courts.

Cal State Fullerton's Titans finished last season 19-4 overall and went 5-3 in Big West conference matches. The Titans will enter Saturday's match with a 2-1 overall season record. Saturday's match will be Cal State Fullerton's first Big West Conference match of the 2017-18 season.

In their last meeting on February 11, 2017, the Titans swept the Highlanders 7-0 (Recap). UC Riverside's latest victory over Cal State Fullerton dates back to the 2008-09 season. The Highlanders faced the Titans in Fullerton, CA and won 5-2 on April 9, 2009 (Recap). The two teams met again on April 16, 2009 for the opening match of the Big West Championships, where No. 8 UC Riverside again was victorious over No. 9 Cal State Fullerton, 5-0 (Recap).

LAST WEEK
The Highlanders blanked Hope International, 7-0, on Thursday winning their first match of the season and kept the Royals from winning no more than four games during the entire match. On Friday, UCR fell in its Big West Conference opener to Long Beach State, 5-2, but not before taking the doubles point and an outstanding victory by Sara Khattab in No. 3 singles. Sunday, UC Riverside fell 5-2 to Grand Canyon after dropping the doubles point and only winning two of its singles matches.

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK
Sophomore Sara Khattab earned the first Big West Women's Tennis Athlete of the Week honor for UC Riverside in nearly six years, excelling in singles and doubles during her matches against Hope International, Long Beach State and Grand Canyon last week. Khattab's most outstanding victory came when she won the lone singles match for UC Riverside in its Big West opener against Long Beach State, charting 1-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5) against Lalita Devarakonda at the No. 3 position.

JORDAN YEAR
Head Coach Mark Henry returns for his 23rd season as the women's tennis head coach, and his 25th season overall at UC Riverside. In that time, he has accumulated 160 total wins—133 of which have come on the women's side.

LAST YEAR
The Highlanders are coming off a 2016-17 season in which they won five matches, their most since 2010-11.

RETURNERS
UC Riverside returns nine players from last year's roster for its 2018 campaign. That includes senior Karla Dulay and sophomore Sara Khattab, who both earned five singles wins last season while spending much of their time on the no. 1 and no. 2 courts.

Junior Tracy Van, who tied for the team-lead with six wins during the dual season, will also be back in the lineup. Tracy Van and Lauren Wolfe combined to lead the way with a 5-5 record in doubles matches, giving them the highest win percentage of any Highlander doubles team since the 2008-09 season.

Rounding out the returners are seniors Tamilla Vaksman, Kassie Truong and Natalie Penner, redshirt junior Chloe Pham, junior Arabella Valera, and sophomore Nicole Hitomi. Vaksman had the most overall wins (8) and highest win percentage (.444) on the team last year.

NEW FACES
The Highlanders will also welcome a pair of freshmen to the lineup in Tia Elpusan (Chula Vista, CA / Otay Ranch HS) and Tammy Van (Garden Grove, CA / Bolsa Grande HS).