Wichita State starts MVC tennis championships with typically dominant performance

The upset this weekend won’t be if Wichita State loses a match. The upset will be if it loses a point to another Missouri Valley Conference women’s tennis team.

The top-seeded Shockers started the MVC Championships with a 4-0 win over No. 8 Evansville on Friday at Wichita Country Club, all in straight sets. WSU (25-3) won its eighth straight MVC regular-season title with a 7-0 record, winning 42 of a possible 43 dual points. That streak is the longest in any regular-season sport by an MVC team.

That dominance — which includes a streak of 76 straight regular-season wins against MVC opponents — should continue this weekend in the tournament.

“When you bring in talented players and improve them when they get here, that’s a pretty good recipe for winning,” Evansville coach Jaysen Wiseman said. “You look at the facilities and you look at the coaches they’ve brought in. There’s clearly a commitment to having a good tennis team.”

The Shockers aren’t likely to slip up this weekend and there is a powerful incentive to handle their MVC competition as cleanly as possible. WSU enters the tournament No. 28 nationally in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings, in line for a No. 2 seed in the NCAA regionals in May. A No. 2 seed might keep them close to home in a regional in Stillwater, Okla. A loss would drop WSU to a No. 3 seed.

“They’re certainly more than motivated enough to win another conference title, so they’re going to bring the energy and intensity,” Foster said. “I encourage them to push each other when it’s needed. This weekend, we’re going to get everyone’s best shot.”

Foster is also watching other matches, especially when No. 33 Kansas and No. 35 TCU play in the Big 12 tournament, that could change the rankings.

“I keep an eye on it, not that I can do anything about it,” he said. “Seeding is important, like in any championship, so if we can hang onto the No. 2 seed …”

On Friday, rain moved WSU’s match indoors, which was just fine with No. 1 singles player Gabriela Porubin, who prefers to play out of the wind and sun. Foster gave her the option of sitting out Friday’s play to protect a sore right wrist. Porubin dispatched Evansville’s Marina Moreno 6-3, 6-1 to improve to 26-9.

“I wanted to (play) because it will give me more confidence in my shots and my game,” she said. “It will build my confidence for the NCAA, hopefully.”

Porubin took control in the second set, dominating the game from the baseline and punishing Moreno’s tepid serves.

“(Foster) told me to work more with my legs and focus on my game, not on mistakes,” she said. “It’s hard, but we have coaches who point us every time toward the right things.”

Porubin, a sophomore from Moldova, was named MVC Player of the Year on Thursday to lead a sweep of the All-MVC singles honors for WSU. She went 4-0 in MVC play at No. 1 singles, with one match going to a tiebreaker and didn’t play in regular-season matches against Evansville or Missouri State.

“She doesn’t make mistakes,” Wiseman said. “And then she has the ability to rip off four or five straight games where she doesn’t lose a point. At 4-3, she won, I believe, six straight games. So she has that ability to turn it up another notch.”

The Shockers won their 15th straight dual match, one shy of the program record set in 1993.

This story was originally published April 29, 2016 at 2:21 PM with the headline "Wichita State starts MVC tennis championships with typically dominant performance."