PHOENIX -- Sacramento State received singles wins from
Mark Keki,
Mate Voros and
Adam Chodur to lead the Hornets to a 4-1 Big Sky Conference Tournament championship victory over Northern Arizona on Saturday morning.
The Big Sky Tournament title is the first for the Hornets since 2013, and the team will receive an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament which begins May 3.
The Big Sky Tourney title is the 12th for the Hornets since joining the league in 1996 (2024, 2009-13, 2007, 2001-03, 1998-99), and the program will make its 11th appearance at the NCAA Tournament (every season mentioned above except 1998).
The Hornets will find out where and who they will play when selections are made for the NCAA Tournament on Monday at 3 p.m.
via video stream at ncaa.com.
The top two seeds squared off today (No. 1 Northern Arizona, No. 2 Sacramento State), and the Hornets avenged their 4-3 regular season home loss to NAU back on March 15. That was the Hornets' only conference loss, as Sacramento State and NAU were Big Sky co-regular season champions.
Voros was named the Big Sky Tournament MVP. He went 2-0 in both singles and doubles play during the tournament, and provided the match-clinching point in yesterday's semifinal victory over Idaho State.
Sacramento State (17-6) advanced to the championship match after beating Idaho State, 4-2, in the semifinals yesterday. The Hornets have won 12 of their last 14 matches, and boast the Big Sky's MVP (
Mark Keki) as well as three first team all-league selections (Keki, Voros,
Jan Silva). In addition, the team's 17 wins are the most since the 2013 team finished 17-13.
In today's match, the Hornets secured a very important doubles point as the tandems of Keki/Voros (6-4 at No. 1), and
Hayden Rand/
Jiri Novak (7-6 at No. 2). The Hornets lost at No. 3, and it came down to the Rand/Novak matchup. In the tiebreaker, they dropped the first two points before finishing on a 7-1 run to claim the tiebreak and the doubles point.
In singles play, Keki (6-2, 7-5 at No. 1), Voros (6-3, 6-3 at No. 2) and Chodur (7-5, 6-2 at No. 4) were each victorious. Chodur provided the match-clinching point and a scene of pure jubilation for the entire squad.
Keki has now won 13 consecutive singles matches.
