Beach Tennis Opens Play at Watanabe Classic

Friday, November 12

Las Vegas, Nev.

All Day

Long Beach State University

Jolene Watanabe Classic

Photo by: John Fajardo

11/12/2021 3:11:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Claire Le Du advanced to the semifinals of her singles flight, and a doubles pair advanced to the semifinals.

By: Michael Abbott, Athletic Communications Assistant

LAS VEGAS, Nev.- Long Beach State Tennis opened play at the Watanabe Classic on Friday, with a doubles pairing advancing to the semifinals, as well as Claire Le Du advancing to the semifinals in singles play.

"We had a lot of tough matches today," said Head Coach Jenny Hill-Costello. "We are looking to learn and build from it and turn some of those losses into wins tomorrow."

In doubles action, the freshman duo of Sheena Masuda and Nikola Homolkova won their quarterfinal match in flight one in dominant fashion, 6-1, to advance to the semifinals.

Also in doubles play Zara Lennon and Zuzanna Szczepanska fell in a tightly contested match in flight one, 6-3. Claire Le Du and Andreea Ciornei competed for the first time as a doubles pairing on Friday, but also came up short, losing 6-2.

In singles play Claire Le Du set the tone for the Beach. She won her quarterfinal in flight three, dominating in straight sets 6-4, 6-3 to move on to the semifinals.

In flight one, Lennon lost a back-and-forth contest 6-3, 6-4 to Natasha Puehse of GCU. Also in singles play, Masuda and Homolkova were in action for the Beach in flight two. Masuda took her match to a decisive third set where she came up just short, falling 6-1, 3-6, 4-6, while Homolkova also fell in a tightly contested match 7-5, 6-2.

Finally in flight four, Szczepanska and Cioreni took the court for the Beach. Szczepanska battled with Salsa Aher of UNLV in her match but fell 6-1, 6-1. Cioreni battled through a back-and-forth match in her quarterfinal, but also came up short, 6-4, 6-2.

Play is scheduled to resume on Saturday at 10 A.M., with doubles play followed by singles action.

Friday Results
Doubles:
Masuda/Homolkova (LBSU) def. Gillas/Mehra (Iowa) 6-1
Horwood/Goncharova (Utah) def. Lennon/Szczepanska (LBSU) 6-3
Kovacs/Fang (UNLV) def. Le Du/Ciornei (LBSU) 6-2

Singles:
Natasha Puehse (Grand Canyon) def. Zara Lennon (LBSU) 6-3, 6-4
Sabrina Longson (Dixie State) def. Nikola Homolkova (LBSU) 7-5, 6-2
Febienne Schmidt (Grand Canyon) def. Sheena Masuda (LBSU) 6-1, 3-6, 4-6
Claire Le Du (LBSU) def. Samantha Horwood (Utah) 6-4, 6-3
Rachel Mellor (Dixie State) def. Andreea Ciornei (LBSU) 6-4, 6-2
Salsa Aher (UNLV) def. Zuzanna Szczepanska (LBSU) 6-1, 6-1