49ers Travel to the Desert for Two
Beach Tennis Travels to Arizona and Arizona State
February 13, 2008 | SEPTEMBER | o | o | | Fri.-Sun. 28-30 | Cal "Nike" Invitational | Day 1
Day 2
Day 3 | | OCTOBER | | | | Fri-Sun. 5-7 | CS Fullerton
Fall Intercollegiate's | Day 1
Day 2
Day 3 | | Thr-Mon 18-22 | Wilson/ITA West Regional Championships
| Day 1 •
Day 2
Day 3 | | JANUARY | o | o | | SAT. 19 | SAN DIEGO | W 6-1 | | SAT. 26 | #6 CALIFORNIA | L 0-7 | | Wed. 30 | at #8 USC | L 0-7 | | FEBRUARY | o | o | | FRI. 1 | *CS FULLERTON | W 7-0 | | SAT. 2 | #33 LSU | L 1-6 | | SAT. 9 | #50 SAN DIEGO STATE | W 7-0 | | Fri. 15 | at #39 Arizona | 1:30 pm | | Sat. 16 | at #19 Arizona State | 12 pm | | Fri. 22 | *at UC Riverside | 2 pm | | MARCH | o | o | | SAT. 1 | SAINT MARY'S | 1:30 PM | | FRI. 7 | *UC DAVIS | 1 PM | | SAT. 8 | *UC IRVINE | 1:30 PM | | WED. 12 | PURDUE | 2 PM | | THR. 13 | PENN | 2 PM | | SAT. 15 | NEVADA | 10 AM | | Fri. 21 | at Pepperdine | 1:30 pm | | Fri. 28 | *at CS Northridge | 2 pm | | APRIL | o | o | | Thr. 3 | at UC Santa Barbara | 1:30 pm | | Fri. 4 | *at Cal Poly | 1:30 pm | | FRI. 11 | LOYOLA MARYMOUNT | 1 PM | | SAT. 12 | *PACIFIC (Gold Game) | 1:30 PM | | Fri. 18 | at Fresno State | 1:30 pm | | Fri-Sun 25-27 | Big West Championships | tba | | MAY | | | | Fri-Sun 9-11 | NCAA 1st/2nd Rounds | tba | Sat-Mon 15-26
| NCAA Championships | |
HITTING THE ROAD UNTIL MARCH
The No. 38-ranked 49ers (3-3) will take on their fourth and fifth top-40 teams to start the season, when they travel to No. 39-ranked Arizona on Friday at 1:30 p.m., before heading to No. 19-ranked Arizona State at noon on Saturday. LBSU remains on the road at UC Riverside on February 22.All three of the team's losses this season have been to ranked teams, No. 6 USC (7-0), No. 8 California (7-0) and No. 33 LSU (6-1). Hannah Grady, fresh off a 6-0, 6-1 victory over No. 61-ranked Julia Trunk of San Diego State, is 12-5 on the season at the No. 1 spot, as she has teamed with Stephanie Bengson to go 9-4 in doubles play. FULL STATISTICS FOR LBSU GRADY GETS PLAYER OF THE WEEK AGAIN
No.1 player Hannah Grady (Coventry, England) was named the Big West's Player of the Week for the second time this season following her two victories last weekend against San Diego State. It was the ninth time in her career that she has been named. CHANGE IN VENUES
2007-08 Home Matches will be played at El Dorado Park (between Spring and Willow) at 2800 Studebaker Road in Long Beach due to construction on the team's tennis courts. Home matches will move back to the NEW 49er Tennis Complex in the fall. Parking is best found next to the library on Studebaker.
ABOUT THE OPPONENT
Arizona, ranked No. 39, is 5-1 on the season with three squeakers over San Diego (4-3), Texas Tech (4-3) and Northern Arizoan (4-3) and convincing wins over Houston (5-2) and Santa Clara (7-0)... their only loss is to No. 33 Florida International... No. 46 Danielle Steinberg is 11-2 in singles play this season and 6-0 in dual competition, while Jane Huh is 13-8... no doubles team has more than five wins, as Natalla Toporowska and Katie Orletsky are 5-5.... former Wildcat Vicky Maes is in her seventh year... ASU is 5-0 on the season and ranked No. 19... they have cruised by Houston, No. 33 Florida International and UC Davis 7-0 and beat Northern Arizona 6-1... they also have a 4-3 win over No. 26 Texas... Nadia Abdala is No. 42 nationally and 15-8 overall, going a perfect 4-0 in dual play at the No. 1 position... No. 93 Kelcy McKenna is 19-4 and 4-0 at the No. 2 position... the No. 11 ranked doubles team of Lalla and Nadia Abdala is 3-4 on the season as the Sun Devils have employed 16 different doubles teams. RHODES GIVES $1.25 MILLION GIFT
Terry Rhodes, a men's tennis player for the 49ers in the 1960s, pledged $1.25 million for the construction of the new campus tennis facility and the establishment of an endowed scholarship for the tennis team. A retired lawyer, he received his law degree from UCLA after receiving his undergraduate degree from The Beach in 1962. Rhodes, 67, quit playing tennis all together eight years ago to focus on another sport, marathon running, which he has run 25 of since 1995. He simply didn't feel he could do both sports at the level to which he was accustomed. The gift is one of the largest to the 49er Athletics Department. LAST WEEK'S RECAP
The 49ers made easy work of No. 50 ranked San Diego State last week, pitching a 7-0 shutout paced by five out of six singles victories in straight sets and a sweep of the doubles point. Hannah Grady and Deborah Armstrong each posted their 12th wins of the season, while the tandem of Stephanie Bengson and Grady are closing in on 10 wins this season, going 4-2 in dual competition and 9-4 overall. IN THE RANKINGS
Beach Tennis moved down to No. 38 this week, after ranking as high as No. 37 last week. They started at No. 41 to start the spring, the second highest in school-history for that time period, behind last year's start of No. 28. Last year's team finished No. 40 nationally. The 49ers have been nationally ranked every year since 2001, ranking as high as No. 18 nationally (in 2006). DUALING DOUBLES
The 49er doubles teams, which all have new partners this season have produced key early season success. Hannah Grady, who teammed with Jessica Weeks last year, has not missed a beat with partner Stephanie Bengson this year, going 4-2 in dual play and 9-4 overall. Weeks meanwhile has taken freshman Stephanie Jeanes under her wing and the team is 3-3 this spring. The No. 3 team are a pair of freshmen in Deborah Armstrong and Lisa Sutton. The duo is 4-2. THAT'S PRETTY EVEN
Looking across the 49ers dual match record and Beach Tennis' ambitious schedule to start the year, four singles players are 3-3 in dual play to start the year. The lineup has been juggled a bit in recent weeks with Deborah Armstrong flip-flopping with Stephanie Bengson at No. 2 and No.3 and Lisa Sutton moving into the No. 6 hole. Sutton is 2-1 since moving into the top-six. Bengson moved back up to .500 at 8-8 following her first win at No. 2 over San Diego State last Saturday. RE-CAP FROM THE FALL
Junior Hannah Grady (Coventry, England) posted the best record in the fall, going 9-2, with a singles championship at the Fullerton Invite and a doubles title with Stephanie Bengson (Albion Park, Australia) at the same venue. The team of Grady and Bengson finished the fall going 5-2. Freshman Deborah Armstrong (New Castle, England) also had nine wins, going 9-5, reaching the Consolation Finals of the Cal Invite. KEEP RAISING THE BANNERS
Since 2002 the 49ers have won five Big West titles (in six years) and four-straight. Each year as also led to an NCAA Tournament appearance, which included a second round appearance in 2006. The 49ers had never won a Big West title or appeared in the NCAA's post-season prior to the 2002 season. NOW THAT'S SMART
The 49ers also continued their stellar work in the classroom as five of the six players in the fall received 4.0 GPAs. Prior to this semester, the tennis team had had nine of the last 12 highest GPAs amongst athletic teams at LBSU. The program's fall GPA was 3.78. The fall GPA was a program-high. BRITISH INVASION
The 49ers roster has a very British feel to it, featuring four of its eight players from Great Britain with the edition of freshman Lisa Sutton (Kelsall) in the spring. Hannah Grady (Coventry) is a two-time All-Big West pick, Jessica Weeks (Beckenham) is also an all-conference pick, while Deborah Armstrong (London) is a freshman. Sutton is the seventh British woman to play for the 49ers since 2001. ADDITION FOR 2008-09
Long Beach State Tennis reloaded with two American high school seniors Julie Luzar (Anaheim/El Dorado HS) and Rachel Manasse (Manhattan Beach/Mira Costa HS), who signed National Letters of Intent to play for the 49ers starting in 2008-09. Luzar, from El Dorado High School, won the league singles title this past season, reaching the round of 16 at the CIF Southern Sectional for the second consecutive year. Luzar is ranked No. 15 in California and was rated as high as No. 104 in tennisrecruiting.net. Luzar also polished off the resume with a doubles win over the No. 1-ranked pair in the country this past season. Manasse is the 2006 South Bay Junior 16's Champion out of Mira Costa High School. She is currently ranked No. 14 in the State and has been rated as high as No. 51 nationally by the recruiting database. Manasse also recorded a top-40 singles win as well in the fall. LBSU loses just two seniors this season. | 
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