Fresno State Athletics
Men's Tennis Season Highlights
5/6/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
May 6, 2002
Though the season was a tough one for the young Bulldog squad, there was enough sucess along the way to warrant optimism for the future.
After sweeping Nevada and Cal Poly in their home opener, the Bulldogs went on to have a terrific home season, going 7-2 overall. The 5-2 upset over No. 24 Harvard was the highlight of the home season.
In the fall, Stefan Suta won the Wathen/Hancock Bulldog Classic by defeating Wayne Wong of California 5-7, 6-2, 6-3 in the finals. Nick Fustar and Suta also took the doubles crown with an 8-5 win over Mike Bruggemann and Victor camargo of Santa Clara.
Also in preseason play, Nick Fustar and Alex Krohn both advanced to the quarterfinals of the Omni Hotels Northwest Regional Tournament.
Senior Nick Fustar was named WAC Player of the Week in January after his impressive win at the No. 2 spot against UCLA, upsetting No. 13 Marcin Matkowski. At one point, Fustar was ranked as high as No. 78.
Hector Almada continued his solid play at the end of the season with 6-4, 7-5 victory at No. 1 singles against Boise State. The sophomore finished winning four of his last five matches at the top singles spot, the lone loss coming to No. 1-ranked Al Garland of Pepperdine, to whom Almada fell 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 despite having two match points. Almada has the best record on the team, with a 13-7 dual match record, including wins in four of his last five at No. 1 singles.
Fresno State closed out the 2001-02 regular season with a 6-1 victory over Pacific at the Spalding G. Wathen Tennis Center. The win improved the Bulldogs' record to 7-15 and was the team's seventh win out of nine home matches. Senior Nick Fustar capped his career by winning his final match at home, a 7-5, 0-6, 6-4 victory at No. 2 singles.
The season concluded for the Bulldogs after a loss to Boise State on Friday in the first round of the WAC Championship, Fresno State is done for the season. The final score against the Bronco's was 4-2. Hector Almada and Greg Shearer earned the two points for Fresno State.
Fustar and Almada were both named All-WAC second team in singles and the duo of Fustar and Ilic was named All-WAC in doubles.
