Bulldogs win fourth straight WAC title

Staff Report / The Collegian

Lucia Tallo and the Fresno State women’s tennis team may have just firmed up their reputation as a Western Athletic Conference dynasty.

The Bulldogs matched the 1993-1997 BYU Cougars in winning their fourth straight WAC title, and fifth overall.

Tallo became the first Fresno State player to win four WAC titles in four years, beating Kimberley Patenaude 6-0, 6-2.

Second-seeded Fresno State cruised to a 4-0 win over top-seeded Rice in the championship of this weekend’s tournament in Honolulu.

The win gives Fresno State an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament, which begins May 13 at campus sites around the nation.

After a subpar stretch in the middle of the season that saw the Bulldogs’ record sink to 8-8, Fresno State closed out the year by winning eight consecutive matches.

Katharina Winterhalter, who was key in helping the Bulldogs pull out of their midseason slump, won her eighth consecutive match, beating Blair DeSesesa 7-5, 7-6 (2), to bring her team-leading win total to 27.

No. 1 doubles team Courtney Jantz and Lucia Sainz won, as did the teams of Lucia Tallo and Jacqui Haskett, and Winterhalter and Fadzai Masiyazi. Haskett and Masiyazi also won their respective singles matches.

Winterhalter and Sainz were named to the All-WAC first team for singles, and the team of Sainz and Jantz won All-WAC in doubles.