Vince Dente Classic at Avila Ahead
The 19th annual Vince Dente Classic will be contested May 22-25 at the Avila Bay Club in Avila Beach. The tournament contains men’s and women’s singles and doubles events in the open divisions, mixed open doubles, A-B-C categories, as well as men’s 40s, 50s and 60s singles. The popular Memorial Weekend event will hold its player party on both Saturday and Sunday this year. Ventura’s Dusty Kemick won last year’s men’s open. Once again, $3,000 in prize money will be handed out.
Contact tournament director Mark Scribner at (805) 595-7600.
109th Edition Ojai Set to Kick Off April 23
The 109th edition of The Ojai begins play April 23 and runs through final April 26. In last year’s men’s open singles final, South Pasadena’s Cecil Mamitt beat defending champion Lester Cook of Hermosa Beach, 6-1, 7-6 (5).
One change the Ojai committee is contemplating this year is moving the annual Wilson barbecue to Friday night and playing a second-round men’s open singles match under the lights. Last year, former Ojai champion Travis Rettenmaier played in the first match under lights at Ojai on Thursday.
Also this year, Dennis Ralston and Alex Olmedo, former USC standouts and Ojai Wall of Fame members, will be honored. In last year’s Pac-10 men’s singles final, Kaes Van’t Hof beat teammate Robert Farah, 6-3, 7-6 (2) in an all-USC affair. In last year’s women’s Open, Pamela Montez beat top-seeded Maureen Diaz 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
For venues, pairings and results, visit the tournament website at ojaitourney.org.
Cal Poly”s Dome Lives Up to Hype
Cal Poly freshman and Arroyo Grande native Andre Dome has lived up to the hype. One of the Mustang’s biggest recruits perhaps in school history was named Big West Men’s Tennis Athlete of the Week for the second time this season. Dome also won the award following the Mustang’s trip to Las Vegas during the first week of February and is now the only player in Cal Poly men’s tennis history to receive the accolade more than once.
Dome went 2-0 online casino in singles play and 1-1 in doubles in two home-Big West matches last weekend. Dome began his weekend with a dominant 6-1, 6-0 victory at No. 1 singles against UC-Riverside’s Gorjan Kovacevic. He continued his outstanding play the next day, claiming Cal Poly’s only point against UC-Irvine with a 7-5, 6-1 win over the Anteater’s top singles player, Wes Miller.
Playing exclusively at No. 1 singles this season, Dome has compiled an 8-4 overall record and a 5-4 dual mark in leading the Mustangs to a 4-5 record. His best win on the young season came against Southern Miss in Las Vegas, where he beat No. 99 Patricio Alvarado for his first win against a ranked opponent
The Mustangs women went on a nice mid-season three-match winning streak with consecutive blowouts over San Francisco (7-0), Memphis (7-0) and Cal State Fullerton (6-1). The team is poised to make a run at perennial power Long Beach State once the Big West Championships roll around April 16-19 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
It would have been a perfect sweep had Cal Poly not lost its only match because of injury as Amy Markhoff was forced to retire from her singles match after injuring her knee. Cal Poly improved to 8-4 overall and 4-2 in the Big West with the win. Playing together for the first time this season in doubles, senior Whitney Peterson and junior Diane Filip cruised to an 8-0 win at No. 3. Also winning easily was the No. 75 ranked duo of junior Suzie Matzenauer and Markhoff at No. 2 (8-1) and juniors Brittany Blalock and Steffi Wong at No. 1 in an 8-4 win.
Cal-State Northridge Beats Memphis
The Cal State Northridge women’s tennis team (6-8) defeated Memphis, 6-1, in a non-conference match as sophomore Whitney Paluch turned in an impressive performance for the Matadors, winning her No. 4 singles match in straight sets and teaming with Sandra Kukla to win their third doubles match. In other doubles action, Evgeniya Vertesheva and Brooke Doane lost their first No. 1 doubles match in more than three weeks but CSUN would take the doubles point as Nina Jaworowski and Nigora Sirojiddinova recorded an 8-1 win at No. 2. The Matadors swept singles spots 1-5.
