SAN DIEGO – San Diego State women's tennis, fresh off back-to-back comeback wins last week, hosts No. 37 Purdue at the Aztec Tennis Center on Friday. First serve is set for noon PT.
The Aztecs won both matches last week over Furman on Wednesday and over No. 61 Tulsa on Sunday, both by a 4-3 scoreline. The Aztecs have now won three out of their last five matches, and have picked up wins over three ranked squads to begin the year. SDSU has also had two sweeps this spring dual season. The Aztecs earned a 4-0 sweep of Long Beach State back in February, and also beat crosstown team UC San Diego in their third match of the year, 7-0. SDSU's two other wins on the year were over two squads who were ranked in the ITA rankings at the time in No. 40 Alabama, and No. 54 Rice. The 4-3 win over Alabama was head coach Peter Mattera's 400th career win on The Mesa. Including Friday's match, SDSU has played seven of their 11 matches against ranked opponents to begin the 2023 dual season.
Individually, Dariya Detkovskaya, a transfer from Oklahoma State, earned MW women's tennis player of the week after going 2-0 in singles play with wins in singles play against No. 61 Tulsa and Furman. In her first match of the week, she went up against Marissa Pennings of Furman at the No. 2 singles slot, and took care of business in straight sets winning 6-0, 6-2. As for her second singles match of the week, Detkovskaya beat Lily Hutchings of No. 61 Tulsa is straight sets as well, 6-3, 6-2. Those two wins improved Detkovskaya's singles record to 8-1 since the start of dual season. Overall Detkovskaya has had a very solid spring dual season to date. In addition to starting 8-1 in singles play, Detkovskaya has won six of her nine matches in straight sets, including her last three matches.
After Detkovskaya the Aztecs have multiple players who are enjoying a great start to the spring campaign. Alicia Melosch has started the season 6-3 at the No. 4 slot in the rotation, and earned the clinching point for the Aztecs in the wins over both Alabama and Furman. Additionally, Andjela Skrobonja is an impressive 5-2 on court one to begin the season.
As for Purdue, the Boilermakers enter Friday's match ranked No. 37 in the nation and have started 11-1 and 2-0 in Big Ten play. They are led by head coach Laura Glitz, who is in her 16th season in charge of the program, and it's the winningest coach in program history with 171 wins to date. All-time the Aztecs are 5-2 against Purdue, with the most recent matchup coming back in 2009, a match SDSU won 6-1.
Aztecs to Host No. 37 Purdue Friday
