1:53pm | It was the same but it was different when nationally ranked (43rd) Long Beach State finally came home for a tennis match and despite a small struggle in doubles, took apart their incoming conference mate Hawaii 6-1 Thursday afternoon at a sun-splashed Rhodes Tennis Center. Yes, the Beach line-up was the same but the backdrop students spinning away in front of the windows of the new Student Rec Center added an additional audience that impressed the locals and the visitors.
“Long Beach has a great facility and a very good team,” said Hawaii head coach Jun Hernandez, who previously helped the Cal men to a ton of national rankings. Jun, of course, had his mood altered after the Beach team trailed in doubles before finding their groove in singles. The Beach was paced by the photogenic and persistent number one Anais Dallara (BWC player of the week), who battled through a tough first set before rolling in the second over Katarina Poljakova 6-4, 6-0 who suffered her first singles loss of the season after a dominating seven match win streak.
In doubles, the Rainbows had high hopes after Deborah Armstrong and Dallara lost to the UH No. 1 doubles of Pinterova/Poljakova 8-3. Meanwhile on courts two and three, the Beach and the Bows were in a fight.
Jaklin Alawi and Anna Jeczmionka won at No. 3 over Nafarette/Van den Bergh and Sarah Cantlay and Julie Luzar came from behind to whip Tadaki/Zorec 8-6 to pick up the doubles point. And as the SID report noted: “Singles was less stressful. Rachel Manasse, in her third match of the season, put together a dominant match at No. 6, beating Aglae Van den Bergh 6-0, 6-1. Alawi also rebounded with a convincing victory over Barbara Pinterova at No. 2, winning 6-1, 6-1. Jeczmionka finished the day with a win in both doubles and singles after topping Natasha Zorec 6-4, 6-2 at No. 4. The final win came from Armstrong, who came from behind to force a first-set tiebreaker, which she won 7-5. With the momentum behind her, she won the second set 6-0 to earn the 49ers sixth point. The only loss for the 49ers came at No. 5, where Alyssa Nafarette beat Sarah Cantlay by a score of 6-4, 6-4.”
Courtside, the Beach fans included the coach’s husband, CIF exec John Costello, who sees this team on a mission to not only win the week (Big West foe Cal State Northridge at Noon on Saturday and Nevada on Sunday at 11:00am are next) but also the Big West championship. LB had a disappointing May 2nd when UC Irvine lost the doubles point but won four matches in singles and the LB bid to win a seventh straight championship came up short. “There is a lot of energy out here today,” he said, “this used to be a dead part of the campus and now we have a lot of foot traffic and student’s stopping in.” And with the arrival next month of talented Slovakian Klaudia Malenovska, a return to the BWC trophy room and the NCAA tourney.
DOUBLES
Pinterova/Poljakova, UH def. Armstrong/Dallara, LBSU 8-3
Cantlay/Luzar, LBSU def. Tadaki/Zorec, UH 8-6
Alawi/Jeczmionka, LBSU def. Nafarette/Van den Bergh, UH 8-3
SINGLES
Anais Dallara, LBSU def. Katarina Poljakova, UH, 6-4, 6-0
Jaklin Alawi, LBSU def. Barbara Pinterova, UH 6-1, 6-1
Deborah Armstrong, LBSU def. Magdalena Ploch, UH 7-6 (5), 6-0
Anna Jeczmionka, LBSU def. Natasha Zorec, UH 6-4, 6-2
Alyssa Nafarette, UH def. Sarah Cantlay, LBSU 6-4, 6-4
Rachel Manasse, LBSU def. Aglae Van den Bergh, UH 6-0, 6-1