Sept. 28, 2005
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State women's tennis head coach Peter Mattera announced the team's 2005-06 schedule on Wednesday. The Aztecs, who advanced to their 18th NCAA tournament a year ago, will play 11 schools that also earned a NCAA postseason berth in 2005.
The fall 2005 portion of the schedule is highlighted by three tournaments, two of which will be held in San Diego. The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Western Regional Championships kicks the season off beginning on Thursday, Oct. 20 through Monday, Oct. 24 at Barnes Tennis Center. The five-day event features the top women's college tennis players in the western region with the winner qualifying for the national tournament.
Following the regional tournament, the Aztecs play host to the SDSU Fall Tennis Classic Nov. 4-6. The annual event features cross town rival Florida State, Long Beach State, Mountain West Conference foe New Mexico, Rice and San Diego. Four days later, SDSU concludes the fall with a trip to Hawaii for the Rainbow Wahine Tennis Classic. The Scarlet and Black join Arizona, Baylor and Hawai'i for the three-day tourney in the nation's 50th state.
The Aztecs begin the spring 2006 dual-match season with a doubleheader against Big West schools UC Riverside and Cal State Fullerton on Jan. 29. SDSU will be looking to sweep both schools for a second consecutive season as it posted a 5-2 victory over the Highlanders and 6-1 win against the Titans last year.
After a brief trip to NCAA participant Long Beach State, San Diego State returns home for two matches against Oregon, a NCAA tournament team, on Feb. 5 and Loyola Marymount on Feb. 8. The Aztecs and Ducks will get underway at noon, while the match with the Lions is slated for a 2 p.m. start.
Following its two-match homestand, SDSU plays three straight teams that advanced to the 2005 NCAA tournament. The Aztecs face a California team (Feb. 10) that advanced to the round of 16 last season before returning home to play a University of Southern California squad that is making its first appearance in San Diego since the 2002 season on Feb. 14. Nine days later, San Diego State makes the trip north to Malibu for a date with the Pepperdine Waves at 1:30 p.m. and then closes out the month of February with a home match against UC Irvine on Feb. 25.
The Aztecs open the month of March on the road in Seattle, Wash., for contests against Idaho (March 3) and NCAA participant Washington (March 4). SDSU later returns to "America's Finest City" to play host to North Carolina State (March 9) and Wisconsin (March 13) before opening MWC play the next week in Las Vegas, Nev.
Conference play sees the Aztecs taking on Utah, Brigham Young and UNLV in consecutive days beginning on March 24. The SDSU-BYU match will be a rematch of last year's MWC Championships semifinal contest that saw the Cougars claim a 4-2 victory en route to the championship title and a berth in the NCAA tournament.
After a non-conference home match against Harvard, a team that reached the round of 16 last season, the Aztecs welcome Colorado State, Wyoming and Air Force to SDSU Tennis Stadium for a trio of conference matches starting on April 7.
San Diego State closes out the conference tilt in Albuquerque, N.M., against New Mexico on April 14 and MWC newcomer TCU the next day.
The Aztecs finish the regular season with cross town rival San Diego at home on Wednesday, April 19, beginning at 2 p.m. SDSU, 4-3 winners last year, will be looking for its second consecutive win over the Toreros before hosting the MWC Championships at Barnes Tennis Center from April 27-29.
San Diego State enters the 2005-06 season with four returning letterwinners off a 2004-05 team that advanced to the NCAA tournament and finished the season 16-11 overall with rankings of No. 47 nationally and No. 6 in the competitive West Region.