Report by LBSU
No. 45 Long Beach State looks to defend its title as the best in the Big West for a seventh straight year, taking the top seed and an 8-0 conference record to the tournament held at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden over the weekend.
Play in the women’s tournament begins on Thursday, as UC Riverside and Cal State Fullerton face off to see who gets the right to play Long Beach State in the opening round. As the top seed, Long Beach State will face the winner of the play-in match in opening round action at 9 a.m. on Friday morning.
With a win, the 49ers will likely play No. 4 seed Cal Poly, a strong team with two members that have been ranked in singles over the season in Susie Matzenauer and Brittany Blalock, matching the number that have been ranked for Long Beach State in Jaklin Alawi and Anais Dallara. While Alawi and Dallara got the better of the two when the team’s played back in the beginning of April, the match was still a close 5-2 affair at the Rhodes Tennis Center.
If action in the early rounds holds to form, finals should feature either UC Santa Barbara or UC Irvine. The Gauchos earned the No. 2 seed by virtue of a 6-2 record and holding the tiebreaker over UC Irvine and Cal Poly. However, UC Irvine as the No. 3 seed, has been beset by injuries in their losses and feature a healthy lineup going into the championships.
For Long Beach State, the 49ers have a balanced lineup throughout. Alawi, who finished the year playing at No. 1 singles had an 8-0 record in Big West matches, as did junior Deborah Armstrong, who as the team’s lone upperclassman has been playing at No. 3 through the close of the season.
Anais Dallara posted a 20-8 overall record in singles coming into the tournament with a win at No. 1 singles against UC Irvine, but took the team’s only loss in sinlges at the top spot to Pacific’s Jennifer Widjaja earlier in the season.
The 49ers have plenty of depth though, as sophomore Rachel Manasse matched Armstrong for the team’s best record in dual matches at 17-5 while playing at No. 4 singles. The Beach has plenty of depth at the bottom of the lineup as well, as Anna Jeczmionka, Julie Luzar and Sarah Cantlay all saw time in the lineup and contributed to the team’s success.
Long Beach State’s first match will be at 9 a.m. on April 30, and by winning would advance to the semifinals starting at 9 a.m. on Saturday, May 1. A win there would put the 49ers in the championship match, scheduled to start at 9 a.m. on Sunday, May 2 with a berth to the NCAA team championships on the line.