49ers Showing Net Gains
by Bob Keisser, Long Beach Press-Telegram
March 2, 2006 In honor of Oscar week and the success of the 2006 Long Beach State women's tennis team, join us as we search for the appropriate movie title to use as subtext for the 49ers' season.
"Crash." What their last eight opponents have done.
"Hannah and Her Sisters." Freshman Hannah Grady, after all, is playing out of the No. 1 spot.
"Cinderella Woman." Starring Australian Stephanie Bengson instead of Aussie Russell Crowe.
"The English Patient(s)." Grady and her two freshman teammates, Jessica Weeks and Katy Williams, all call England home.
"The Godmother." Starring veteran 49er and team captain Sandra Rocha.
"The Constant Gardner(s)." The stories of head coach Jenny Hilt-Costello and assistant Hally Cohen.
"Hustle & Flow." What the team has done all season.
Since February began, Hilt-Costello's team has won eight consecutive matches and ascended to the highest ranking in the program's history, currently No. 35 after venturing north and beating No. 22 Oregon, No. 54 Denver and Portland on consecutive days.
Freshman Grady is a polished 6-4 playing out of the No. 1 spot, Williams is 8-2 at No. 2, Bengson 7-3 out of No. 3, and Rocha 6-3 at No. 4. As a team, the Nos. 5-6 players are 15-4, and the doubles teams of Grady-Weeks and Bengson-Rachael Porsz are unbeaten on the season.
Anyone who has paid attention to the program over the last few years isn't surprised. The 49ers, 8-2 coming into today's match with top rival UC Irvine on the campus courts, have won the Big West Conference title and advanced to the NCAA Tournament three of the last four seasons, and Hilt-Costello's record the last five-plus seasons is a superb 99-36, a .733 winning percentage.
But considering how little experience the eight members of the team have as a, well, team, it is impressive how quickly they've come together.
Rocha is the only veteran, and the only player on the team born in the continental United States. Bengson is a sophomore. Porsz, a junior from England, is in her second year on campus after transferring. Emmanuelle Tabatruong, from France, sat out last season with an injury. And Grady, Weeks and Williams are frosh in the truest sense, brand new to the U.S. as much as Long Beach.
"My first two months here, I struggled to get going," said Grady, who has handled being placed at the No. 1 spot exceedingly well. "It wasn't being No. 1 as much as everything was so new. I knew the English girls but no one else. I had never been on a team before. I played against (Weeks and Williams) probably since I was 8 or 9, but it's a different experience playing someone than it is growing up with people. That's one reason I came here. I wanted the team experience."
Five members of the team live in the campus dorms Grady, Bengson, Weeks, Williams and Krystina Katayama, the doubles specialist who grew up in Hawaii and Grady said it has fostered a lot of togetherness.
"For this group, the team idea was very appealing, and we've had players in the past who didn't fit that mold," said Hilt-Costello after Wednesday's practice. "I sell the opportunity to play as a team, especially for those players coming out of juniors, which can be real cutthroat. In junior play, the parents of your opponents are often yelling at you from the sidelines. In college team play, you have six or seven teammates cheering for you. And I've always believed you can also accomplish more individually by accepting the team concept."
Women's tennis is every bit as competitive as women's basketball and volleyball, with generally the same number of universities competing and everyone looking to make the 64-team NCAA Tournament field. It's perhaps more competitive, too, when one factors in that recruiting is a worldwide venture in tennis.
It was a coup for Hilt-Costello to land her overseas contingent. She landed Bengson, from Albion Park in New South Wales, Australia, after Bengson led her high school to back-to-back national titles. Porsz, from St. Ives, Cambridgeshire, was ranked in the junior top 10 in England. Tabatruong, from Bagneaux, France, was ranked in the junior top 50 in France at the ages of 16, 17 and 18, and twice played in the French Open juniors division.
Grady, from Coventry, was the No. 1-ranked junior in Great Britain in 2001 and 2002 and played Wimbledon juniors three times. Weeks, from Beckenham, Kent, won a national doubles title at the age of 15. Williams, from Stevenage, Herfordshire, has experience in more than 20 junior and senior events.
"There's been real good communication with the freshmen on what it takes to compete. There's a lot more preparation that goes into playing with team goals," said Rocha. "The coaches want us to think like a team, and help each other out, so that when we take the court, the attitude is that you want to win for the team more than yourself.
"Right now we're feeding off that. We ended last season with a real good feeling and the team environment is even better this season. Our goal was to get into the top 30, and we're all thinking that we can go further than that."
"It sounds simple," said Hilt-Costello, "but this a very talented team that is also very motivated, and they've been really receptive to coaching, to all of the things we've asked them to bring to the table to get better as a player and as a team."
Which is what one could call "Match Point." |
