TURLOCK — The Cal State Stanislaus women's tennis team moved up in the latest rankings released by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association this week, in both the national and the regional polls.

The Warriors are now ranked No. 32 in NCAA Division II, according to the ITA, the governing body of collegiate tennis. CSUS was ranked No. 41 in the previous release. More importantly for the first-year program, the Warriors are now No. 4 in the West Region behind only BYU Hawaii, UC San Diego and Hawaii Pacific. BYU Hawaii is No. 1 in the nation and five-time defending CCAA champion UC San Diego is No. 10.

The top four teams in the West Region at the end of the regular season would advance to the NCAA West Regional tournament. Cal State Stanislaus will not face BYUH, UC San Diego or HPU ay more this season so unless one of those teams falter, Stanislaus's postseason fate would be in its own hands to stay at No. 4.

“We only have matches left against teams below us in the rankings so we can take care of business ourselves, we should remain in the top four for regionals,” said head coach Verek Visaraga.

The Warriors are led by three-time CCAA player of the week Verena Preikschas, who is now the front-runner to earn the conference's player of the year honors. Preikschas is now 11-1 on the season in singles play and 8-0 as the No. 1 doubles team with Katie Eng. Eng improved her personal record to 9-2 overall in 2008-09. Also leading the way are Vanesa Reibstein (9-4) and the doubles team of Reibstein and Brianna McClintock at No. 3 (5-2).

Preikschas is ranked No. 6 in the West and Eng at No. 15 as singles players. Together, the duo is the third ranked doubles team in the region.

Cal State Stanislaus, 5-2 overall and 3-2 in the CCAA, will continue its conference schedule this weekend with a match at Cal State San Bernardino on Friday and at Cal Poly Pomona on Saturday.