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Long Beach State University Athletics
Beach Tennis Makes 2015 Debut This Weekend
1/14/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
"I think the sky is the limit for this group," head coach Jenny Hilt-Costello said of her team entering the 2015 season. With a young squad that claimed a Big West title and an NCAA Tournament win last year, many would be inclined to agree with her.
Long Beach State women's tennis continued its dominance over the Big West in 2014 as it made an undefeated run through its conference opponents and continuing then rolled through the Big West Tournament. A championship run has become commonplace at the Beach over the last decade or so but this one had a little different feel with six freshmen on a roster of eight players.
Four of those freshmen are back for their sophomore campaigns, including Big West Freshman and Player of the Year Maeva Razakasoa. Karolina Rozenberg is the lone senior at the Beach and has a chance to become just the sixth player in Beach history to win 150 matches. Junior Ebba Unden already has two All-Big West singles selections, a pair of All-Big West doubles selections and over 100 wins.
"Given what this team did last year with six out of eight being freshman, and five out of those six in the starting lineup, I think the sky is the limit for this group," commented Hilt-Costello. "With our six returners, I was really happy because they came back motivated in the fall, worked hard and every single one of our returners made improvements to their game in the fall."
All six returners have turned up their respective games as evidenced by a strong showing in the fall tournament season. Beach Tennis won over 70 percent of its singles matches, which should come as no surprise after the Beach won over 150 singles matches in 2014.
Razakasoa did not miss a beat after a record-tying freshman season that saw her win 30 singles matches. She went 11-5, upsetting a nationally-ranked player in the ITA All-American Tournament this fall and has her eyes set on securing the No. 1 slot in the lineup this spring. No one else lost more than three matches all fall as Julie Gerard and Hayley Thompson each went 7-2 while Rozenberg was an impressive 8-2. Unden went 8-3 and Laura Eales was 6-3.
Overall, Coach Hilt-Costello liked what she saw during the fall from each of her six returners in their singles matches. The youthful, yet already accomplished, squad showed that it is ready to not only repeat last year's success but surpass it.
"It's just a matter of continuing to set higher goals and never being satisfied. This group is very good about saying 'What's the next step? I'm happy. I had a great match but what's next? What do I do to get better?' That is how I think we're continuing to improve. I see improvement in every single one of our returners in singles. They are all playing better tennis now."
While the singles game has been rolling for Beach players up and down the lineup, Hilt-Costello called last year's doubles game "a bit of a roller coast ride for us." The Beach still went 72-41 in doubles matches and took the key doubles point in the NCAA upset of Tulsa.
This fall, the Beach duos went to the next level with an 18-7 record and showed a great deal of improvement after much talk, strategizing and hard days of practice.
"We spent a lot of time in fall talking about doubles and what we need to get better at in order for us to play strong, consistent doubles," said Hilt-Costello. "After that it was just a matter of them getting out on the court and grinding at those areas where we needed improvement and I'm seeing it right now."
Add in two already accomplished doubles players in Ella Monsey and Alex Jones, who both joined the Beach in January. The two incoming freshmen won a junior national doubles title together back in England and are eager to contribute both in doubles and singles. The newcomers create a depth in the lineup that Hilt-Costello wouldn't be afraid to stack up against anyone in the country.
"The returners are physically better, mentally better and with more experience," she said. "Now we're adding two freshmen who are very strong and make our depth and our lineup probably the deepest we've had in a long time one through eight."
The experience, the improvement and the depth has the Beach tennis program aiming high in 2014. All the returners experienced the thrill of the victory over a top-25 team when the Beach took down Tulsa in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last year and are hungry for more.
After Razakasoa's clinching win in the Big West Tournament and Unden's marathon clincher over Tulsa, the 49ers have their sights set on winning another conference crown and taking the program to new heights.
"I think this is the kind of team that can bust into the top-30 or top-25," Hilt-Costello forecasted. "I think that should be one of their goals for the season although I don't generally like to focus on rankings. If we focus on the process this is definitely a top-30 team."
"When the team beat Tulsa and got a top-25 win, they realized, 'Hey! We can be top-25,'" she added. "And then to play the defending national champs with an extremely competitive doubles point and some solid singles performances, it opened their eyes to see that we're not far off the mark."
The journey toward that goal begins this weekend as the Beach hosts Portland, New Mexico and conference foe CSUN in the Beach Tennis Winter Classic. First serve in the round robin style tournament will be at 11 a.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Rhodes Tennis Center.
Players Mentioned
