Beach Tennis to play two key matches

Alawi is 8-0 over Long Beach State's last four matches.

3/31/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis

March 31, 2010

Long Beach, Calif. - No. 38 Long Beach State faces two important tests this weekend, playing No. 55 Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara on the road on Friday and Saturday.

Long Beach State (13-3, 5-0) leads the league, while the Mustangs (12-3, 5-1) and Gauchos (9-9, 4-1) are just behind the 49ers as the season winds down and positioning for the Big West Tournament becomes more important than ever.

The 49ers start by facing Cal Poly at 1 p.m. on Friday in San Luis Obispo in a matchup between ranked teams that also features three ranked players in singles with Cal Poly's Susie Matzenauer (#85) Brittany Blalock (#86) and Long Beach State's Jaklin Alawi, who entered the singles rankings this week at #125.

After playing the Mustangs, the 49ers head south to face UC Santa Barbara, who picked up one of the surprising wins of the conference season with an upset of UC Irvine earlier in the year. That match is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. on Saturday, April 3.