Fresno State Athletics
'Dogs Built Upon Already Stellar Tradition in 2008-09
7/10/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
July 10, 2009
FRESNO, Calif. - Already one of the most dominant forces in women's college tennis, the Fresno State squad took the program to new heights in 2008-09, bringing home an unprecedented eighth-consecutive WAC Championships and making their fourth-straight trip to the NCAA Sweet 16.
In addition to the team success, Bulldog singles and doubles were recognized for their accomplishments on the court. Juniors Anastasia Petukhova and Renata Kucerkova collected the ITA National Doubles Team of the Year Award and senior Melanie Gloria was named the 2009 ITA Northwest Region Senior Player of the Year. The 'Dogs also excelled in the classroom with five players on the Academic All-WAC team, Petukhova and Gloria on the ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District team and Gloria earning Academic All-American honors.
Juniors Petukhova and Kucerkova set the tone for the season early on by advancing to the finals of the prestigious ITA All-American Main Draw and about a month later winning an ITA National Indoor Championship.
The Bulldog pair continued their success into the Spring and on Feb. 19, 2009, they officially became the team to beat as the No. 1 ranked combo in the country.
Superior doubles play is a Bulldog tradition. In 2008, Fresno State had two doubles teams, Tinesta Rowe and Gloria along with Petukhova and Kucerkova, advance to the NCAA Doubles semifinals. Gloria and Rowe advanced to the National Doubles Championship to face UCLA's Tracy Lin and Riza Zalameda, who won the title.
After their performance at the NCAA Doubles Championship, Rowe and Gloria were the preseason No. 1 doubles team in the country. In February, when Petukhova and Kucerkova became the top-ranked pair in the country, it marked the first time since head coach Simon Thibodeau took over the program in 2003 that the Bulldogs had two separate doubles teams ranked No. 1 at different points in the season.
The Bulldogs were also making some noise during the fall. Individually five of the Bulldogs advanced to the Round of 32 at the ITA Northwest Regionals, and the defending three-time WAC Player of the Year Gloria went on to win the regional singles title.
As a team the 'Dogs have dominated the WAC for years and are a perennially Top 25 team. The '09 was no different as Fresno State started the spring season by knocking off No. 28 Denver, 4-0, and No. 12 Vanderbilt, 4-3.
The Bulldogs were riding a five-match winning streak heading into a confrontation with fifth-ranked California in Berkeley, Calif., on March 21, 2009. The Bruins held a 12-3 series advantage heading into the match, but the Bulldogs had their number in recent years winning the last three matches of the series.
Cal took an early 1-0 lead by winning the doubles point, but the Bulldogs won four of the six singles matches, including the marquee matchup at No. 1, as No. 19 Gloria knocked off No. 17 Jana Juricova, 7-6 (4), 6-3, to clinched the match for the Fresno State. The 4-3 victory was the Bulldogs first upset of a Top-10 team on the season. California would later go on to play Duke for the 2009 National Championship, which the Blue Devils won, 4-0.
Just six days after the signature victory over California, the Bulldogs traveled to a neutral site in San Diego, Calif., to take on the No. 1 Northwestern Wildcats. The match was a battle from the beginning, with the Northwestern narrowly edging out Fresno State for the doubles point when No. 52 Keri Robison and Maria Mosolova defeating No. 16 Gloria and Rowe in a tiebreaker, 9-8 (7-4).
The Bulldogs bounced back to win three of the singles matches including No. 19 Gloria upsetting No. 2 Mosolova, 6-4, 4-6, (10-4), for the second time in her career. Wildcats went on to prevail, 4-3.
The Bulldogs remained hot and won 15-straight matches after the Northwestern match. From Feb. 28-May 10, Fresno State compiled an impressive 21-1 record. The Bulldogs were particularly dominant in conference play by going 8-0 against WAC foes and outscoring them by a combined 54-2. The 2008-09 season marked the first time all the WAC women's tennis teams played each other, making the Fresno State the first-ever WAC regular season champion.
Gloria was named the WAC Player of the Year for the fourth time at the conference tournament in Honolulu, Hawai'i. Kucerkova and Petukhova joined her as First Team All-WAC singles players and Rowe was named to the Second Team. In doubles, Petukhova and Kucerkova and Gloria and Rowe were named First Team All-WAC. Thibodeau was named the WAC Coach of the Year for the fifth time during his tenure at Fresno State.
Despite bulldozing through the conference regular season, the WAC Tournament wasn't a walk in the park for the Bulldogs.
After dispatching San Jose State, 4-0, in the first round, the Bulldogs met up with an inspired Hawai'i team for the conference semifinals. The Wahine made the Bulldogs work for every game and match, but Fresno State prevailed 4-0 to advance to the championship.
In the conference title match, the Bulldogs met a Boise State team they'd defeated, 6-1, just eight days before. But the Broncos came out determined to end Fresno State's streak of consecutive WAC Championships. In five of the six matches, Boise State won the first set and would go on to take a 3-2 lead in the team score. Petukhova defeated Lauren Megale, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, on court two to tie the score at three matches apiece.
The Bulldogs' final hope would fall upon Laura Pola in the determining match. The freshman from Ottawa, Ontario, showed maturity and composure as she clinched the match in a tiebreaker in the third set, 2-6, 6-1, 7-5, over Klaudia Wlodarczyk, to give the Bulldogs' their eighth-straight WAC title.
However more dramatics were in store for Fresno State.
Generally the Top 16-ranked teams host the first two round of the NCAA Tournament. However in 2009, the selection committee implemented a new policy because of the economic downtrend. The committee decided in some cases a lower seed would host a tournament site to better accommodate travel for all teams. Despite securing the No. 16 seed, Fresno State travelled to Urbana, Ill., for the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.
The Bulldogs dispatched Ohio Valley Conference champions Eastern Kentucky, 4-0, then picked up an exciting 4-3 victory over the host Illinois Illini. The victory punched their ticket for their fourth-straight appearance in the Sweet 16, where they met up with No. 1 Northwestern, in a 4-0 Wildcat victory.
In the NCAA Doubles Tournament, Fresno State's top-ranked doubles team of Kucerkova and Petukhova earned All-American status for the second-straight year by advancing to the quarterfinals. The pair was also named the 2009 ITA Doubles Team of the Year.
Gloria was also recognized by the ITA as she was named the 2009 ITA Northwest Region Senior Player of the Year.
Four players on the 2008-09 squad were listed on the Top 20 in career wins at Fresno State by season end, with Gloria ranked No. 2 with 123, Petukhova at No. 6 with 95, Kucerkova No. 8 with 91 and Rowe tied for 12th with 71.
The four seniors on the 2008-09 squad, Gloria, Rowe, Bruna Paes and Danon Beatty, will be remembered not only for winning four-straight WAC titles, never losing dual meet to a conference opponent and playing in four NCAA Sweet 16, but also their commitment in the classroom and the community.
