49ers
lose first Big West match
By
Daniel Frias
On-line Forty-Niner
Just
when the No. 61 ranked Long Beach State
women's tennis team was starting to get
things going a few Hornets got in its way.
Those
Hornets are No. 53 ranked Sacramento State
(7-3), who defeated the Beach 5-2 on a very
chilly day at the 49er Campus Courts. The
49ers had won its first two Big West Conference
games of the season last week against Cal
State Fullerton and UC Irvine. The loss
drops the 49ers overall record to 2-4.
"Our
girls played well, but you have to give
Long Beach a lot of credit. They came back
and played well in singles in the second
sets. They stayed motivated and that says
a lot about the coaches and team at Long
Beach," said Sacromento State head
coach Bill Campbell.
Sacromento
State featured a very strong team which
included two players who are nationally
ranked. 49ers' junior Nicole Bouffler and
senior Lindsay Marvel had the difficult
task of going against these top players
in singles competition. Bouffler played
a great game and gave it all she had against
the No. 45 nationally ranked Margarita Karnaukhova.
Bouffler lost the first set 6-1, but bounced
back in the second and almost made it to
a third set before falling 7-6 to give the
match to Karnaukhova.
Marvel,
who faced the No. 53 ranked player in the
nation, didn't fair so well against Anna
Erickson who easily disposed of her in two
sets (6-2, 6-0).
"That
girl was good," said Marvel after her
match. "She's on of the best I've ever
played in college tennis."
It
was not all bad news for the 49ers. Sophomore
Alanah Carroll was victorious in her match
against the Hornets Ann Roslund beating
her in two sets (6-3, 6-0). Freshman Sandra
Rocha came back after losing the first set
taking the next two sets to defeat her opponent
(2-6, 6-2, 6-1).
Senior
Kelly Chan dropped the first set as well
and started to mount a comeback against
Roberta Fassenko but fell short losing her
match (1-6, 4-6). Junior Claudia Argumedo
also dropped her match in two sets (2-6,
4-6) to Cecilia Helland.
Despite
the tough loss there were still some positives
to be taken away from the game said 49ers
head coach Jenny Hilt-Costello.
"We've
had a lot of bumps lately, but in terms
of process I think it went well," said
coach Hilt-Costello. "We were focusing
more on our process and I thought we learned
a lot from this match.
"Kelly
Chan had a tough match and we were making
adjustments, unfortunately for us we made
those adjustments too late. With Sandra
she went down in the first set and we came
up with things she could do in the second
set and she was able to come out with a
win."
In
doubles competition the tandem of Bouffler
and Rocha were up against Karnaukhova and
Marta Gronowicz. The Hornets jumped out
to an early 3-0 behind Karnaukhova's aggressive
play. The 49ers, however, managed to come
back after a getting into a rhythm and took
the doubles match 8-6.
That
was the only win in doubles play for The
Beach as it dropped the other two doubles
matches. Marvel and Carroll couldn't get
it done against the Hornets duo of Erikson
and Roslund losing 8-2. Chan and Emmanuelle
Tabatroung put up a fight, but eventually
succumbed to Helland and Fassenko by a score
of 8-6.
"I
thought we came out and competed well,"
said coach Hilt-Costello. "They are
a really tough team. We had a chance to
win. On a different day we would have won.
Unfortunately it was not in the cards today."
The
49ers will get a chance to get back on the
winning track when the team goes to Hawaii
next week to face BYU-Hawaii, Michigan,
and Hawaii. All three games will be played
in Honolulu.
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