Fresno State Athletics
Ahmed sisters' run ends in NCAA quarterfinals
5/28/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
By Josh Mitchell
jomitchell@csufresno.edu
GoBulldogs.com
TULSA, Okla. - Fresno State's Mayar Sherif Ahmed and Rana Sherif Ahmed's season concluded on Saturday in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Women's Doubles Championship as the Bulldogs' No. 32-ranked doubles team was defeated 6-1, 7-5 by No. 4 Maegan Manasse and Denise Starr of Cal at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center.
After dropping the opening sets in its first two matches with identical 6-2 scores, the Golden Bear duo came out firing today, breaking the Bulldogs' first serve of the match. On its own serves, Cal failed to make a mistake as they proceeded to claim the opening set 6-1.
The second set started much like the first, with the Golden Bear duo breaking Fresno State's first serve to take an early advantage. Trailing 2-1 after winning a crucial deuce point, the 'Dogs broke serve for the first time in the match to level the set at two all. Cal, though, quickly countered with a break of its own, but the Bulldogs then responded to bring the match level again with a break.
Fresno State took its first lead of the match at 4-3 in the second set by holding serve on deuce. The fourth-seeded Bears answered by grabbing the next two games to take a 5-4 edge. The 'Dogs refused to go away though, not surrendering a point in the next game on Cal's serve. But once again, Cal had an answer, breaking the Bulldogs' serve for the sixth time in the match. Fresno State was unable to force a tiebreak and dropped the set 7-5
Despite the defeat, the Bulldogs' doubles team finished the year as the program's fifth team to earn All-America honors (Simone Jardim/Kim Niggemeyer, 2001-02; Lucia Sainz/Katharina Winterhalter, 2006; Melanie Gloria/Tinesta Rowe, 2008; Renata Kucerkova/Anastasia Petukhova, 2008-09) and first under head coach Ryan Stotland. The duo was one of only two teams ranked outside the top 30 to reach the this year's Round of 16, and the only team ranked higher than 30 to earn a spot in the quarterfinals.
This season, the sisters earned wins over six nationally ranked opponents, including two in the top 10. For their two year-run together, they compiled a 46-13 record, playing all but one of their matches as Fresno State's No. 1 doubles team.
"Be Bold" - Follow @FS_WTennis on Twitter for up-to-date information on the Fresno State Women's Tennis team.
Fresno State Quotes
Rana Sherif Ahmed, Senior
On the tournament…
"It was a great tournament for me and I wouldn't have wanted to finish my senior year in any better way."
Ryan Stotland, Head Coach
On the Mayar and Rana Sherif Ahmed's performance this week…
"The performance this week was a great one. Unfortunately, today we did not play as well as we needed to, but kudos to Cal as they played really smart and put continuous pressure on us. We showed that against the best of the best that we are among them.
On his program…
"It's really great to see that after four years of hard work that our program is becoming one of the best in the country and we can compete with anyone."
"It was an honor to coach this group and I know they all look forward to many more successful years at Fresno State. We keep growing every year and that takes years and years of work so I could not be happier with where we are heading. We are doing it the right way, with student-athletes graduating with honors and being some of the best tennis players in the country."
On this season…
"The season had its ups and owns as all seasons do, but I know that we had that Bulldog spirit all year and I am a proud coach as we accomplished a lot of amazing feats, and the awards are still coming in. The team works so hard off the court that you will see more about how wonderful this team really is when our grades come out. I'm very pleased to say that our women are great tennis players, better students, and even better people."
