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Long Beach State University Athletics
49ers Set to Play CS Northridge on Friday
3/26/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
March 26, 2008
LONG BEACH-- No. 49-ranked Long Beach State (11-5) will have a quiet week with just one conference match, when they continue their four-match road trip with a match at No. 69-ranked CS Northridge (9-4) on Friday at 2 p.m. LBSU has not lost a conference match up this season, has previously beaten CS Fullerton, UC Riverside, UC Davis and UC Irvine. LBSU has won eight of nine heading into Friday's contest.
Beach Tennis will return home for the final time on April 11 and 12, hosting Loyola Marymount at El Dorado Park on April 11 and Pacific on April 12 at the Billie Jean King Tennis Facility. The team's current facility, the Rhodes Tennis Center, is currently under construction and will be ready for the team this summer.
All five of the team's losses have been to top-25 teams, as the 49ers embarked on an ambitious schedule which included 10 teams ranked in the pre-season top-50 and six others ranked No. 50 to No. 100.
The Matadors are led by Sandra Kukla, who is 9-2 in dual matches this season and 10-4 overall at the No. 3 and No. 4 positions. Nina Jaworowski is 9-6, mostly at the No. 6 position, while Brooke Doane is 7-7. Victoria Brymer is 3-9 at the top of the order. The doubles team of Doane and Kankey Koichumanova is 14-2 overall and 11-1 at the No. 2 position. Beach Tennis has beaten the Matadors the last three years in the first round of the Big West Tournament and is 22-12 overall against them all-time.
The Matadors have a 4-3 win over Cal Poly this year and are also a perfect 5-0 against Big West foes.
No. 116-ranked Hannah Grady, who is a team-best 20-7 this year, is the fifth player in school-history to win 20 games twice in a career. She is also one of just six singles players to be nationally ranked. Grady's win total of 61 singles wins is tied for fourth-best all-time, impressive when you consider she came in at the Spring semester of her freshman year and did not compete during the fall of that year. Grady picked up win No. 20 with her fourth ranked win of the season.
Senior Stephanie Bengson is closing in on all-time singles record for the 49ers, as the she is 15-10 this season and 67-34 all-time, three wins from tying the all-time record. Bengson also posted a ranked win against Pepperdine last week.
The freshmen doubles team of Deborah Armstrong and Lisa Sutton have now won 11 in a row, going 12-2 in the spring after a doubles win last week against No. 18 Pepperdine. The No. 31-ranked team of Grady and Bengson are a team-best 16-6 this season, going 11-4 in the spring. The duo had won 10 straight prior to consecutive setbacks to Nevada and Pepperdine's No. 7-ranked team in the nation, in which they lost 8-6.
Armstrong is also a win away from becoming the second 20-game winner, as the freshmen is 19-11 this year. When she picks up that next week, it will be three straight years Beach Tennis will have two 20-game winners in singles.
Freshmen Stephanie Jeanes is also a 10-game winner, going 11-5 in singles play, mostly at the No. 4 position. Herself and partner Jessica Weeks are looking to become the third 10-game winner on the doubles side this season, as they enter the match at 9-6.
Players Mentioned
