Sac State teams in Big Sky finals; Sierra fundraiser

The Sierra College women pose with doubles exhibition players
Vahe Assadourian (rear middle), Nikita Matveyko (rear right),
Sam Riffice (second from right) and Gabriela Knutson (far right) in
Orangevale. Photo by Paul Bauman

   The Sacramento State men and women reached the Big Sky Conference Tournament finals with 4-0 victories Saturday at the Gold River Racquet Club in the Sacramento area.
   The top-seeded women (16-9) trounced No. 4 Northern Colorado (9-9) for their 91st consecutive conference win. Maria Meliuk, a senior from Belarus, clinched the Hornets' victory with a 6-3, 6-2 decision over Jennifer Buchanan at No. 5 singles.
   Sac State will seek its 11th straight Big Sky title when it faces No. 3 Montana (14-7), a 4-2 winner over No. 2 Northern Arizona (10-13), today at 10 a.m. 
   The No. 2 Sac State men (10-12) drubbed No. 3 Eastern Washington (12-9) in the other semifinal. Freshman Sean Kolar from Del Oro High School in the Sacramento suburb of Loomis provided the clincher, defeating Chad Henninger 7-5, 6-2 at No. 4 singles.
   The Hornets will face No. 1 Montana (16-4), which prevailed 4-3 against No. 4 Weber State (9-13), today at 2 p.m. Sac State try to win its 10th Big Sky crown and avenge its only league loss of the season, 4-3 in Missoula, Mont., on April 8. The defeat snapped the Hornets' 24-match conference winning streak.
   The winners of today's matches receive automatic berths in the NCAA Tournament, which begins May 11.
   UC Davis -- The UC Davis women (11-11, 6-2 Big West Conference) ended their regular season with a 6-1 victory at home over Cal State Fullerton.
   The Aggies earned the No. 2 seed in the Big West Championships, which begin Thursday in Indian Wells. It's their best league finish since joining Division I.
   UCD seniors Dahra Zamudio, Noelle Eades and Zoe Davidson played their last home matches.
   ATP World Tour in Monte Carlo, Monaco -- Top-seeded Bob and Mike Bryan, the 1998 NCAA doubles champions from Stanford, beat unseeded Spaniards Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez 6-4, 7-6 (5) on clay to reach the final of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters for the fifth time.
   The Bryan twins, who won the Monte Carlo title last year and in 2007, will meet second-seeded Max Mirnyi of Belarus and Canada's Daniel Nestor, a former Sacramento Capital in World TeamTennis.
   Men's Challenger in Sarasota, Fla. -- Sixth-seeded Sam Querrey, a San Francisco native living in Las Vegas, outlasted unseeded Michael Russell of Houston 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 on clay to advance to the final of the $50,000 Sarasota Challenger.
   Querrey will take on fifth-seeded Paolo Lorenzi of Italy for the title. Lorenzi fought off seventh-seeded Wayne Odesnik, a resident of Weston, Fla., who won the 2007 Sacramento Challenger, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. 
   Tursunov to return -- Dmitry Tursunov of Folsom in the Sacramento area is scheduled to launch the latest comeback of his injury-plagued career this week in the $50,000 Savannah (Ga.) Challenger on clay.
   The 29-year-old Moscow native, who's seeded first, has been out since mid-January with a strained tendon in his left wrist. Tursunov is right-handed but has a two-handed backhand.

   Women's Challenger in Dothan, Ala. -- American wild cards Irina Falconi and CoCo Vandeweghe, who will play for the Capitals in July, trail Eugenie Bouchard of Canada and Jessica Pegula of Boca Raton, Fla., 3-6, 6-6 in the semifinals of the $50,000 Dothan Pro Classic. The match is set to resume today.

Vahe Assadourian, above, and Gabriela
Knutson edged Nikita Matveyko and
Sam Riffice in an exhibition during
a fundraiser for the Sierra College women.
Photo by Paul Bauman

   Sierra College Fundraiser in Orangevale -- Vahe Assadourian and Gabriela Knutson edged Nikita Matveyko and Sam Riffice 6-3, 6-7 (5), 10-8 tiebreak in a clay-court exhibition during a fundraiser for the Sierra College women.
   Assadourian, the director of the Gorin Tennis Academy in the Sacramento suburb of Granite Bay, coaches former top-100 singles player Jimmy Wang of Taiwan. They won the doubles title of the Chico Futures last year.
   Knutson, a Sacramento native who turned 15 Saturday, trains at the same club in Prostejov, Czech Republic, as reigning Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova and 2010 Wimbledon runner-up Tomas Berdych. Knutson has a Czech mother and American father.
   Matveyko, a Russia native who will turn 16 next Sunday, trains at the Gorin academy, and Riffice, 13, is a top junior from Roseville.
   The event raised $2,000 for the Sierra women.

TODAY'S TV SCHEDULE

Today
(All times PDT)

   Monte Carlo final (Nadal vs. Djokovic), Tennis Channel, 4:30-7 a.m. (live), 5-10 p.m. (taped).
   Fed Cup, World Group playoffs, United States at Ukraine, Tennis Channel, 7:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. (taped).
   Fed Cup, World Group semifinals, Italy at Czech Republic, Tennis Channel, 1:30-3:30 p.m. (taped).

   CALENDAR

   Today

    Big Sky Conference Tournament, Gold River Racquet Club, 2201 Gold Rush Drive, Gold River, Calif.  (Sacramento area), women's final (Sacramento State vs. Montana) at 10 a.m., men's final (Sac State vs. Montana) at 2 p.m.  

Friday-April 30

   USTA National Men's, Women's and Mixed 30's Indoor Championships, Spare Time Indoor Tennis Center, 11205 Pyrites Way, Gold River, Calif. (Sacramento area).