Derrick Tuskan, Photo Editor

The San Diego State women’s tennis team has won eight of its last nine matches.

SDSU has climbed to No. 36 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings, and just took two of its three matches to open Mountain West Conference play – including a win over No. 23 BYU.

But as well as the Aztecs have been playing lately, they are searching their past for inspiration heading into today’s match against No. 19 Harvard at the Aztec Tennis Center.

That’s why the Aztecs spent Tuesday’s practice working with former SDSU player Christy Panter.

While SDSU has spent recent weeks perfecting their serves, returns and volleys, head coach Peter Mattera brought in Panter for a different kind of work.

Panter, who is now a sports psychologist, worked with the team on some of the mental aspects of the game

\”She’s going to work with the kids on their focus and on being in the right frame of mind for the stretch drive,” Mattera said. “In addition to doing all the fundamentals, we want (the team) to have the right mental tools to compete.”

However, if the Aztecs are searching for the right tools to defeat Harvard, they need only to look to last Saturday when the team knocked off BYU.

Mattera said he feels that the matchup with the Cougars, who were ranked higher than SDSU, was indicative of the way the rest of the season will go.

“BYU, is a very deep, high-quality team,” Mattera said. “That match could have gone either way, and it came down to who was willing to work harder for it. That’s the way it’s going to be down the stretch.”

And Mattera is looking to position his team for the stretch run and a possible NCAA Tournament bid.

“You play teams like Harvard, BYU; teams that are tournament-level teams, so you can build your (NCAA Tournament) resume,” Mattera said. “We’ve positioned ourselves fairly well, got some good wins against (nationally ranked) teams, but we’ve still got work left to do.”

For the Aztecs, the matchup with Harvard is all about building an NCAA resume.

“When Harvard’s coach called me, it was a no-brainer to schedule them,” Mattera said. “We had a little break in our schedule, and they were a Sweet-16 team last year. Playing them helps us a lot.”

Mattera also said he feels that the matchup with Harvard is going to be similar to SDSU’s match with the Cougars.

“It’s going to be close,” Mattera said. “It’s going to come down to who wants it more. The match could go either way ? but hopefully our new winning streak starts today.”