Big West Tennis Release No. 4

Long Beach State looks to extend a 28-match regular season win streak against Big West opponents when it takes on UC Riverside this Saturday.

BIG WEST AT A GLANCE

Long Beach State Begins Defense Of Regular Season Title
Long Beach State, the three-time defending Big West women’s tennis regular season champion, hosts UC Riverside on Saturday.  The Beach has won 28 consecutive regular season matches against Big West opponents, and hasn’t lost a conference contest since Mar. 30, 2013.  In addition, LBSU is on a seven-match home winning streak and has not lost a Big West home match since Mar. 5, 2011.

The UC Santa Barbara women take on their fourth consecutive top 20 opponent, making a short roadtrip to No. 20 UCLA.  Cal State Fullerton, off to a program-best 4-0 start, seeks to extend the success with road matches against San Francisco and Santa Clara.  Another Big West match is on top next Monday as CSUN travels to Hawai‘i.  On the men’s side, UC Riverside is the busiest Big West squad with four matches in Las Vegas, squaring off against New Mexico State, Weber State, UNLV and Youngstown State.

Ranked Opponents Go Timber 
Big West players have posted some impressive individual victories to start the 2017 season.  A total of six nationally ranked opponents – five singles and one doubles – have been toppled.  On the women’s side, Cindy Nguyen of Hawai‘i downed No. 31 Arianne Hartono of Ole Miss.  UC Santa Barbara junior Palina Dubavets has knocked off two ranked foes – No. 56 Zoe Katz of USC and No. 62 Mia Horvit of South Carolina.  Cal State Fullerton senior Alexis Valenzuela clawed her way to a win over Nevada’s No. 66 Claudia Herrero.  The UCSB tandem of Dubavets and Stefani Stojic, ranked as high as 10th in the country last year, earned a solid win against the No. 18-ranked doubles team of Katz and Gabby Smith.  UC Irvine senior Sebastian Heim returned to form after battling injuries, coming up with an outstanding win over No. 28 Logan Smith of USC. 

SINGLES WINS

Player	School	Opponent, School	Nat’l Rank
Alexis Valenzuela	Cal State Fullerton	Claudia Herrero, Nevada	No. 66
Sebastian Heim	UC Irvine	Logan Smith, USC	No. 28
Palina Dubavets	UC Santa Barbara	Zoe Katz, USC	No. 56
Cindy Nguyen	Hawai‘i	Arianne Hartono, Ole Miss	No. 31
Palina Dubavets	UC Santa Barbara	Mia Horvit, South Carolina	No. 62

DOUBLES WINS

Tandem	School	Opponent, School	Nat’l Rank
Dubavets/Stojic	UC Santa Barbara	Smith/Katz, USC	No. 18

Indian Wells Hosts Big West Tournament For 14th Straight Year
Indian Wells Tennis Garden is hosting the Big West Men’s and Women’s Tennis Championship for the 14th consecutive year.  One of the premier facilities in the United States, also a host of the BNP Paribas Open, Indian Wells will host all six men’s and nine women’s teams from April 27-30.