April 26, 2003
SAN DIEGO -
Final Championship Bracket in PDF Format
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The San Diego State women's tennis team (22-5) claimed its first-ever Mountain West Conference championship Saturday, defeating Brigham Young 4-1 at the SDSU courts. The 23rd-ranked Aztecs, who were 0-2 in conference title matches entering this afternoon, earned the MWC's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, the program's 17th postseason appearance.
"Today is a classic example of what this team's got - a lot of character and a lot of depth," said SDSU head coach Peter Mattera, who earned conference coach-of-the-year honors. "We lost the doubles point again just like in the semifinals, but it didn't rattle us. We just came back and played really confident in the singles and really believed, which is what we talked about at the change (between doubles and singles)."
For the second straight, day the Aztecs came from behind after dropping the doubles point. SDSU's number one doubles of Indra Erichsen (Husum, Germany) and Silvia Tornier (Hamburg, Germany) stayed perfect on the week with an 8-4 victory. After BYU's Hadley Macfarlane and Nicole Schneider won the number two doubles (8-5), San Diego State let a 5-1 lead in the number three match slip away, as Cougars Tara Porter and Olga Boulytcheva secured the first point with a 9-7 victory.
In the singles, SDSU won the first set in all of the six matches. Tornier, ranked 85th nationally, tied the championship at one point apiece with a convincing 6-1, 6-1 victory at the number one spot over BYU's Leeza Klempner. Her doubles' partner Erichsen soon followed suit at number six singles, defeating Tara Porter 6-1, 7-5, for her third win in the last three days.
On courts three and four, SDSU secured the title with straight set victories by junior Katalina Romero (Tijuana, Mexico) and senior Katja Karrento (Mariehamn, Finland). Romero, one of four Aztecs to not lose a set in singles play at this week's championship, finished just minutes after Karrento, securing the title, 6-1, 6-3 over Olga Boulytcheva, for the 4-1 team victory.
San Diego State, which avenged a 4-3 loss to the Cougars (13-11) in the 2001 Mountain West Conference championship, advances to its seventh NCAA tournament in the last eight seasons.
Earlier in the day, the Aztec men's tennis team also won the Mountain West Conference title with a 4-0 win against New Mexico in Provo, Utah, marking the second time in conference history that one school has won both titles in the same year (last: BYU 2001).
San Diego State will now await the draw in the 64-team NCAA tournament when the selections are announced Wednesday, April 30, on ESPNews, beginning at 1:30 p.m. PT. The NCAA Regionals will be held May 9-11, on campus sites, while the championship will be hosted by the University of Florida, May 15-24, in Gainesville, Fla., at the Alfred Ring Tennis Complex.
2003 MWC Championship Match
(2) SDSU def. (4) Brigham Young, 4-1
SDSU Courts - San Diego, Calif.
DOUBLES - (BYU won point)
No. 1 - No. 34 Erichsen/Tornier (SDSU) def. Klempner/Reynolds (BYU) - 8-4
No. 2 - Macfarlane/Schneider(BYU) def. Hedberg/Karrento (SDSU), 8-5
No. 3 - Porter/Boulytcheva (BYU) def. Graf/Romero (SDSU), 9-7
Order of Finish: 1, 2, 3
SINGLES -
No. 1 - No. 85 Silvia Tornier (SDSU) def. Leeza Klempner (BYU) - 6-1, 6-1
No. 2 - No. 95 Lindsey Hedberg (SDSU) vs. Dominique Reynolds (BYU) - 6-2, 3-4 (DNF)
No. 3 - Katalina Romero (SDSU) def. Olga Boulytcheva (BYU) - 6-1, 6-3
No. 4 -Katja Karrento (SDSU) def. Hadley Macfarlane (BYU) - 6-4, 6-2
No. 5 - Nicole Schneider (BYU) vs. Patricia Graf (SDSU) - 4-6, 6-2, 3-0 (DNF)
No. 6 - Indra Erichsen (SDSU) def. Tara Porter (BYU) - 6-1, 7-5
Order of Finish: 1, 6, 4, 3
Results From Saturday, April 26, 2003
Fifth Place Match - No. 5 Colorado State def. No. 7 Utah, 4-1
Championship Match - No. 2 SDSU def. No. 4 BYU, 4-1
MWC Women's Tennis Championship - Final Standings
1. SDSU
2. BYU
3 tie. UNLV & New Mexico
5. Colorado State
6. Utah
7 tie. Air Force & Wyoming