SAN DIEGO – San Diego State women's tennis hits the road one last time this weekend to finish Mountain West regular season play, with matches on Friday against San Jose State and Saturday against Nevada. Both matches will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada and first serve on both days is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. PT.
The Season So Far
San Diego State heads into the two matches with a 13-6 overall record and ranked 45th nationally in the latest ITA rankings that was released on Tuesday morning. Last weekend SDSU continued Mountain West Conference play with a weekend split, falling to UNLV 4-2, and beating No. 67 Fresno State 4-2. With the split the Aztecs are now 6-2 in the Mountain West and in a tie for second place in the conference standings with one week to go. SDSU has won nine of their last 11 matches dating back to the beginning of March.
So far this season the Aztecs have knocked off six teams that have been ranked in the ITA rankings, including last time out when they beat No. 67 Fresno State, and also three weeks ago when they beat No. 37 Purdue, 4-3. SDSU has also won three matches in extremely close fashion, all by an identical scoreline of 4-3. The Aztecs beat Purdue, Tulsa, and Furman by that margin, and of their 13 wins on the year, four have been decided by just one point as the Scarlet and Black also took down No. 40 Alabama 4-3 in their home opener. The Aztecs win over Alabama was head coach Peter Mattera's 400th career victory on The Mesa.
Picking Up Steam
Three different Aztecs have won Mountain West women's tennis player of the week in four of the last six weeks. Both Andjela Skrobonja and Dariya Detkovskaya earned the honors earlier in the month, while Tamara Arnold joined the list last week for her play in the weekend sweep of Utah State and Boise State. The latest to earn the honor for the second time was Skrobonja, a transfer from Florida International University, who was named MW player of the week for a second time last Tuesday, after a 4-0 weekend and two team wins over No. 61 Colorado State and Wyoming last time out.
On the season, Skrobonja has posted an 11-3 record with doubles partner Detkovskaya since the two of them have been paired together, and a 2-0 record in Mountain West play. As for singles play, Skrobonja is 11-4 entering this week's matches. The junior has led the Aztecs to five wins in their last six matches, while playing consistently the top competition from throughout the Mountain West.
Detkovskaya has been just as good for the Aztecs, and has started 11-2 in singles play. She has won eight of her 13 matches in straight sets, including four of her past six matches. Additionally, Detkovskaya has wins over three power five programs' individuals this spring. The senior beat No. 17 in the nation Snow Han of USC in three sets, 4-6, 6-4, 12-10, to begin the season, Ole Pitak of Alabama in straight sets 6-3, 6-3 a week later, and most recently topped Katja Wiersholm of Cal in three sets, 4-6, 7-5, 10-8.
Tamara Arnold has also played well recently in conference play. The senior has played consistently at the No.1 or No. 2 spots in the rotation all season, has posted a 10-5 record in dual play in singles, and has won four out of her last five singles matches. She has also beaten opponents from ranked teams including Alabama and Rice so far this season.