Cal State signs two tennis standouts

 Cal State San Bernardino's women's tennis team continued its quest for success in the highly-competitive California Collegiate Athletic Association with the signing of two outstanding high school players for the 2008-09 season.

            The Coyotes, coming off a 5-7 season with the help of two key freshmen recruits, has landed two more talented high school seniors who will help fill the shoes left by the team's lone graduating senior, Jennifer Joy.

            Joy, of Palm Desert, earned all-CCAA first-team honors all four years at CSUSB and was the conference's most valuable player as a sophomore. She set team single-season and career records for victories at No. 1 singles.

            Joining the Coyotes in 2008-09 will be:

            -- Lyndsay Haack of Riverside, an outstanding player at Martin Luther King High School as a junior and ranked among the top players in junior age-group rankings in the region and in the nation.

            -- Janay Palicte of Redlands, member of the Redlands High School tennis team and a partner with Paloma Vazquez on the Citrus Belt League champion doubles team that advanced to the CIF Southern Section semifinals in 2007.

            CSUSB Head Coach Heather Langley said Haack attended Summit View Independent Study High School her senior year while she concentrated on national junior tournaments.

            As a junior, Langley said, Haack went 33-0 in regular season competition for Martin Luther King, winning the Ivy League title and voted the Ivy League MVP and her team's MVP.

            She finished her senior year ranked No. 100 in the nation in girls 18 doubles and No. 380 in singles. In 2007 she achieved a section ranking of No. 8 in doubles and No. 30 in singles.

            "After a dozen scholarship offers from schools, I know I made the right choice and can't wait to be a Coyote," Haack was quoted as telling Coach Langley.

            Palicte was the 2005 Sunkist League singles champion at Bloomington High School before transferring to Redlands High School. She was initially paired at No. 1 doubles with Holly DiMichelle but then captured the CBL doubles title in 2007 with Vazquez as RHS won its fourth straight league team championship. She was named to the all-CBL first-team.

            She and Vazquez finished second in their doubles division at the 108th Ojai Invitational in April.

            Haack and Palicte join a team that returns seven players including No. 2 singles and No. 1 doubles player Leslie Horn, two impressive freshmen -- Brittany Choate and Sara Jenkins, who were 11-13 combined in singles play this spring -- along with Dottie Elwell, the team's No. 2 doubles player and No. 3 singles player.

            CSUSB finished 1-7 in the CCAA but defeated NCAA tournament qualifier Cal Poly Pomona, 5-4, for the first time in the history of the program.