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Long Beach State University Athletics
Long Beach State University
UC Santa Barbara
Champs Again! Beach Tennis Wins Big West Tournament Title
4/26/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. -- Beach Tennis is NCAA Tournament bound again. Top-seeded Long Beach State continued a dominant run through the Big West with a 4-1 win over third-seeded UC Santa Barbara in Sunday's Big West Tournament championship match.
The Beach heads back to the NCAA Tournament for the fifth year in a row and 12th time in the last 14 years. Another convincing win for Beach Tennis concluded a dominant 2015 run through the Big West. Long Beach State dropped just two points in the tournament this weekend and never dropped more than two points in any Big West match this year.
LBSU quickly captured the doubles point to start the championship match against No. 57 UCSB. Ebba Unden and Hayley Thompson set the tone with an 8-2 win in the No. 1 doubles match. Karolina Rozenberg and Laura Eales followed with an 8-4 win at No. 2 to clinch the point.
Eales captured the first singles point for the Beach with a 6-2, 6-3 win in the No. 6 match and Maeva Razakasoa followed with a 6-1, 6-1 win at No. 1. Razakaosa's win was her 29th of the year and brought the Beach within a point of capturing the tournament title.
The dog pile was put off momentarily as UCSB's Stacey Yam avoided the sweep with a 6-0, 6-4 win at No. 5 but it would be the only point that UCSB captured.
Hayley Thompson scored the clinching point after a hard-fought battle with April Scatliffe at No. 4. Thompson swept through the first set, winning 6-0 to take the advantage in the match. Scatliffe fought back in the second set but Thompson was determined to lift her team to the title. She won the second set 7-5 to set off the celebration for Long Beach State.
With the tournament title, the Beach staked its claim to the Big West's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. The Beach will learn its draw in the NCAA Team Tournament on Tuesday when the selection shows airs on NCAA.com at 2 p.m.
Players Mentioned
