SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A pair of impressive singles wins against the top players from a pair of nationally ranked squads on the road helped Sacramento State junior Reese Walker to Big Sky Conference player of the week honors on Wednesday.
Walker picks up the second weekly award from the conference office in her Hornet career while becoming the third Sacramento State student-athlete to be so honored by the league in the last five weeks along with junior Irene Riva (Jan. 28) and redshirt junior Lou Baudouin (Feb. 11).
Playing at No. 1 singles and No. 3 doubles in the Hornets' contests against No. 52 Long Beach State and No. 22 San Diego State, Walker finished 2-0 in singles while having both of her doubles contests ended early.
She opened the week by putting an end to a two-match losing streak with a straight-set win over the Beach's Diana De Simone, 6-4, 6-3, as the then-No. 68 ranked Hornets upset Long Beach State, 4-3. A day later, she clinched one of her team's points against the Aztecs by bouncing back from a first-set loss in a tiebreaker and rallying to defeat Jo-Yee Chan, 6-7 (7), 6-3, 6-2.
The two victories pushed Walker to 6-3 overall in singles play on the year, with five of those wins coming at the No. 1 spot in the Hornets' lineup.
Now ranked No. 50 in the nation according to the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association's poll released on Tuesday (Feb. 24), Sacramento State has faced four teams ranked in this week's poll: No. 21 Stanford (which had been ranked No. 11 in the country at the time of the match), No. 22 San Diego State, No. 45 Hawai'i, and No. 51 Long Beach State.
This week's No. 50 national ranking is the program's highest since the Hornets were ranked No. 49 in the country on Feb. 25 of last year, which was also the first ranking inside the top 50 for Sacramento State since it stood No. 43 in the nation on Feb. 22, 2012.
Big Sky Conference play begins for the Hornets this weekend with a pair of dual matches on the road as they take on Montana on Friday (Feb. 27) at 8:30 a.m. PT, then traveling to Montana State on Sunday (March 1) for a 9 a.m. PT first serve.
