March 3, 1998
March 6
Arizona
Hellman Tennis Center
1:30 p.m.
March 7
Arizona State
Hellman Tennis Center
Noon
BEARS HOST DESERT SCHOOLS: After hosing a heart-breaker to Stanford last Saturday,, the seventh-ranked Golden Bears (9-2) will continue their six-match homestand this week with back-to-back contests against No. 23 Arizona, Friday, March 6 and No. 8 Arizona State, Saturday, March 7.
ABOUT THE OPPONENTS: Arizona upset Arizona State, 5-4, last Saturday in a dual match on the ASU campus to hand the Sun Devils their first loss of the season. Arizona (6-2, 2-1 Pac-10) is lead by senior Vicky Maes, who is quickly regaining the form that ranked her No. 2 in the country before being sidelined with an injury. She has leapfrogged up the rankings thirty spots to No. 44 in just two months. Cal's Amanda Agustus will face Maes in the No. 1 singles match for the second time this season. Augustus defeated Maes 2-6,7-5,6-1 in the quarter-finals of the Pac-10 Indoor in Seattle this past January. Arizona State (6-1,2-1) is home to No. 38 Reka Cseresnyes and the thirteenth-ranked doubles team of Stepanie Lansdorp and Katy Propstra..
THE SERIES: Cal hold the all-time series advantage over both Arizona and Arizona State. Last year, the Bears swept the Wildcats, 6-3 in Tucson and 6-0 in Berkeley to increase their series lead to 26-10. Cal's series advantage over Arizona State stands at 18-8 after the Bears and Sun Devils split a pair of dual matches last season. ASU took the first meeting, 5-4, in Tempe, while Cal came back to beat the ASU at home by the same score.
THE LINEUP: Eight of Cal's 11 players are available to play this week with seven expecting to see action. The tentative singles lineup includes; Amanda Augustus, Esther Knox, Francesca La'O, Anita Kurimay, Stephanie Tibbits and Amy Jensen. Expect to see teams of Augustus/Amy Jensen, Knox/Kurimay and La'O/Jenny Lee in doubles play. Unavailable due to injury are Claire Curran (elbow), Emeka Mayes (ankle - season), and Lisa Swierniak (shoulder - season).
THE COACHES: One of the Top 10 winningest coaches in women's collegiate tennis, Jan Brogan is in her 20th year as the Bears head coach. In that time, she has compiled a career dual match record of 367-149 (.711). She is assisted by associate head coach Kathy Toon.
REWIND: The seventh-ranked California women's tennis teamsplit the first two matches of their current homestand last weekend, defeating No. 29 Fresno State 9-0 on Friday before being edged by No. 5 Stanford 5-4 on Saturday. Amanda Agustus rebounded from a rare loss at the National Indoors the previous week to easily defeat Fresno State's Dora Djilianova 6-1, 6-1 in the No. 1 singles position to set the tone for the Bears. Amy Jensen played at No. 4 for the first time this season and took apart Laura Townsend, 6-0, 6-3 to improve her dual match record to 8-0.
Against Stanford, Cal found itself in a 4-2 deficit after sinlges but could not pull the match out in doubles, falling 5-4. Augustus improved her overall record to 17-4 with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Anne Kremer in the No. 1 slot and Kurimay knocked off Sarah Pestieau 7-5, 6-1 at No. 5. Although the Bears went on to take two of the three doubles flights, the match was decided at the No. 6 singles postion where Stanford's Jennifer Heiser eked out a 6-3, 6-7, 7-5 win over La'O.
BOUNCING BACK: After struggling out of the gate with three straight losses, sophomore Amy Jensen has bounced back and is beginning to show the skills that earned her All-American honors last season at Wake Forest. Since those three losses in October, Jensen has posted a 13-3 record, including an eight-match winning streakthat came to an end versus Stanford. With just one loss in dual match play, Jensen has spent most of the season in the Nos. 5 and 6 slots in the Bears rotation, appeared in the No. 4 slot last weekend, her highest positon since arriving at Cal. Last season as a freshman, Jensen was the Atlantic Coast Conference flight champion at No. 2 singles and compiled an outstanding 24-6 singles mark. She was also an All-ACC first team selection.
DOUBLE TROUBLE: If Cal entered the season with question marks regarding its doubles rotation, they've certainly been answered as the Bears have combined to post a 26-3 record in dual match action. Leading the way has been the tandem of Amanda Augustus and Amy Jensen who are 9-1 in dual match play. Overall, the flight 1 Pac-10 indoor champions are 14-2,and had their 11-match win streak snaped versus Stanford. Even better, percentage wise, has been the twosome of Esther Knox and Anita Kurimay. The flight 2 Pac-10 indoor champs are undefeated in 10 matches. In the No. 3 slot, Francesca La'O and Jenny Lee have certainly held their own, compiling a8-2 dual match record to date.
BEAR NOTES: Cal, 9-2, is off to its best start since 1987 when the Bears opened the season with nine consecutive wins ... junior Amanda Augustus, already with 17 wins on the season, could tie last season's victory total of 19 with a pair of victories this weekend. She has also won 13 of her last 15 singles matches, all at No. 1 ... Freshman Anita Kurimay has certainly made her presence felt in her first year on the Cal squad. After opening the season with a No. 63 preseason ranking, Kurimay has notched a 12-6 overall record and has appeared as high as No. 3 in Cal's starting rotation. In doubles, Kurimay has teamed with Knox to post ten consecutive victories, including three straight to capture the flight 2 doubles title at the Pac-10 Indoor Championships ... Stephanie Tibbits's is clearly off to the best start of he career. Twice during the 1997-98 season, the junior from Ketchner, Ontario, Canada has ripped off multiple match winning streaks. The first came during the fall/winter tournament season when Tibbits won eight straight with the second ending at seven straight last weekend at the WNITC. Tibbits, who has played in the No. 2, No. 3 and No. 5 positions in the Cal lineup, crack the 20-win plateau last weekend and is now 20-10 on the season. Tibbits registered a 21-14 mark last season and saw most of her success in the Bears No. 4 slot (8-1 dual match).
