Long Beach State Continues Its Homestand Against Harvard, Saint Mary’s

Thursday, March 14

Long Beach, Calif.

2:00 PM

Long Beach State University

Harvard

Mathilde Tranberg, Paulina Franco Martinessi

Long Beach State Continues Its Homestand Against Harvard, Saint Mary’s

3/13/2024 8:15:00 PM | Women's Tennis

The Beach host Harvard on Thursday at 2 p.m. and Saint Mary’s on Friday at 1 p.m. at Rhodes Tennis Center

By: Lindy Zamora, Associate Athletic Communications Director

LONG BEACH, Calif. – The Long Beach State Women's Tennis team (6-4, 3-1 Big West) continues its longest homestand of the season with a pair of matches this week against Harvard (11-2) and Saint Mary's (5-3). The Beach and the Crimson will face off on Thursday, March 14 at 2 p.m., before LBSU hosts the Gaels on Friday, March 15 at 1 p.m.

Live Scoring will be available for both contests via BeachLiveStats.com

ABOUT THE BEACH

Long Beach State is in the midst of its longest homestand of the year as the Beach are coming off of a pair of wins last week over East Carolina (4-3) and UC Davis (5-2) to bring their record to 6-4 overall and 3-1 in Big West action.
When playing at Rhodes Tennis Center, Long Beach State is 4-2 this season.
The Beach turned in an excellent singles showing against the Aggies. After dropping the doubles point, Long Beach bounced back and won the next five singles matches.
Senior Rhona Cook in Hawaii as she took down nationally-ranked No. 99 Ana Vilcek in a pivotal three-set contest at flight one.
Against UCSD, junior Peppi Ramstedt led the way as she teamed with Rhona Cook to take down the Tritons' Katelyn Vu and Kelly Leung, 6-1, to give the Beach the doubles point. Ramstedt then clinched the match for Long Beach with a 6-2, 6-4 win at flight three.
Cook was excellent against the Highlanders as she clinched the match for the Beach with a 6-2, 6-1 over Brionna Nguyen at flight one.
Versus LMU, the Beach got off to a strong start winning the doubles point. Justine Dondonay was solid in singles action as she earned Long Beach State's lone singles victory.
At UCR, Dondonay saw action at flight six in singles and rolled past Kei Kato 6-0, 6-0.
Mathilde Tranberg shined in the season opener dropping just one game in doubles action, before winning 6-0, 6-0 in singles.
During the fall, the Beach played in four tournaments and turned in solid performances in each of them.
Long Beach State Head Coach Jenny Hilt-Costello is in her 27th year at the helm of the Beach Tennis program. She owns an overall record of 407-189 for an impressive .683 winning percentage. The winningest coach in Beach Tennis history, Hilt-Costello holds LBSU tennis coaching records in single-season wins (22), career wins (407), and highest winning percentage (.683).

SCOUTING HARVARD

Harvard comes into the week with an 11-2 overall record.
The Crimson are riding a seven-match winning streak as they have earned victories over Cornell (4-0), Dartmouth (4-0), Furman (4-3), Liberty (4-0), Boston (4-0), Army (4-0), and Cal State Fullerton (4-2).
Harvard's lone losses this season have come at No. 10 Texas A&M (6-1) and against Yale (4-0).
When playing on the road, the Crimson own a 4-1 record.
The Crimson are led by Kate Kim who is 9-1 during the dual season and 19-4 overall. She has played primarily at flights four, five, and six. Kim is 3-0 at flight four, 4-0 at flight five, and 2-1 at flight six.
Traci Green is in her 17th season at the helm of the Crimson.

THE SERIES: THE BEACH VS. THE CRIMSON

Thursday's match between Long Beach State and Harvard is the ninth overall meeting between the two schools in program history.
In the all-time series, the Crimson lead the Beach, 5-3.
Last season, the two teams faced off on February 24 in Cambridge, Mass., and Harvard earned a 5-1 win over Long Beach State.
The Beach are looking for their first win over the Crimson since 2015 when LBSU took down Harvard, 4-3, at Rhodes Tennis Center.

SCOUTING SAINT MARY'S

Saint Mary's comes into the week with a 5-3 overall record.
The Gaels are coming off of a pair of wins over UC Davis (4-2) and Nevada (4-1).
Saint Mary's will take on UC Riverside on Thursday, before facing Long Beach State on Friday.
The Pirates will be in Southern California for a pair of matches against Big West competition as ECU will take on UC Riverside on Thursday, March 7 before facing Long Beach State on Friday, March 8.
When playing on the road this season, Saint Mary's is 3-2.
Head Coach Katharina Winterhalter is in her first year at the helm of the Gaels Tennis Program. She previous spent seven years as the head coach at Cal Poly.

THE SERIES: THE BEACH VS. THE GAELS

Friday's match between Long Beach State and Saint Mary's is the 10th meeting in program history.
In the all-time series, the Beach lead the Gaels, 5-4.
In their last meeting, Saint Mary's defeated Long Beach State, 6-1, at Rhodes Tennis Center.
The Beach are looking for their first win over the Gaels since 2020 when they earned a 4-0 sweep over Saint Mary's in Long Beach, Calif.

DOUBLES DOMINANCE

The Beach has won the doubles point in six of nine dual matches they've played thus far.
The duo of Paulina Franco Martinessi and Mathilde Tranberg have been solid posting an 8-1 doubles record during the dual season thus far. The pair have played all their matches at flight three.
Long Beach State's doubles dominance began in the Fall Season, as the Beach won four doubles draws. The Beach picked up a pair of doubles victories at the Beach Tennis Fall Tournament before winning two more doubles flights at the UNLV Watanabe Classic.
Leading the way for LBSU was Hana Becirovic Novak who, along with two different partners, won two doubles events.
In the Beach Tennis Fall Tournament, Becirovic Novak was paired with Mathilde Tranberg as the duo defeated CSUN's Sofia Dermenjyan and Cydney Tolmoyan, 6-4.
In Vegas, Becirovic Novak teamed up with Doga Akyurek and won the UNLV Watanabe Classic No. 2 Doubles Draw, 7-6 (4).
Also earning doubles wins for the Beach during the fall season were Justine Dondonay and Paulina Franco Martinessi, who won the Black Doubles Draw at the Beach Tennis Fall Tournament by a score of 6-3.
Rounding out the doubles winners for Long Beach State during the fall season were Rhona Cook and Peppi Ramstedt who claimed the No. 1 Doubles Draw Title at the UNLV Watanabe Classic, 6-2.
At the Beach Tennis Winter Invite, LBSU doubles remained strong as the Beach captured the Doubles Title in a 6-2 win from Peppi Ramstedt and Rhona Cook.

BIG WEST WOMEN'S TENNIS PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Junior Peppi Ramstedt was named Big West Player of the Week on Wednesday, January 25 after a solid week in which she captured three doubles victories and a pair of singles wins at LBSU's Beach Tennis Winter Invite.
Ramstedt partnered with senior Rhona Cook and the duo picked up a convincing 6-2 win against Nevada's Amahee Charrier and Anastasia Luneva to win the Doubles Title. Prior to the pair's championship win, they also earned a 6-2 win over Pacific and a 6-2 triumph over Big West opponent, CSUN.
In singles action, Ramstedt downed Nevada's Lou Anne Guerbert 6-1, 6-1, before taking down

Pacific's Alexis Sam, 7-5, 6-0.
WALTZING MATHILDE

Mathilde Tranberg kicked off the dual season in a big way. The senior from Horsholm, Denmark waltzed her way through a 7-0 sweep over Fresno Pacific on Friday, Jan. 26.
Tranberg cruised to three wins over the Sunbirds as she, along with doubles partner, Paulina Franco Martinessi, downed FPU's tandem of Halle Faherty and Malia Mitchell, 6-1.
Tranberg then faced Faherty in singles action and never gave up a game as she cruised to a 6-0, 6-0 victory to help ensure the Beach sweep.

JUSTINE SHINES AT HOME

Senior Justine Dondonay led Long Beach State at the Beach Tennis Fall Tournament as she came away with both a singles and doubles title in during the three-day competition.
Dondonay paired with sophomore Paulina Franco Martinessi and secured the Black Draw Title with an impressive 6-1 win over LBSU teammates Peppi Ramstedt and Rhona Cook.
In singles action, Dondonay was excellent as she captured the White Draw Championship with an exciting battle against Akyurek. After dropping the first set, 6-3, Dondonay came back to win, 7-5, 6-2, in a gritty three-setter.
Dondonay picked up the Beach's lone singles victory against LMU as she defeated Anastasia Bozova, 6-3, 6-4.
This season, Dondonay is 3-2 in dual action. She is 2-0 when playing singles at flight six and 1-0 when playing at flight four. Her two singles losses came at flight five.

RHONA IS COOKING

Senior Rhona Cook kicked off her senior season in a big way. The Chester, United Kingdom native turned in an incredible performance to open the year at the Cal Fall Invitational as she captured the Gold Draw Title.
Cook faced junior Lan Mi from host school, Cal, in the Finals of the Gold Draw. She promptly took down Mi in the first set, 6-4. In the second set, the two battled out an epic rally of 32 strokes before Cook went down the line to win 6-3.
While Cook shined in singles action, she also was solid in doubles play. She teamed up with Peppi Ramstedt and the duo defeated Gonzaga's Carolina Wernli and Lia Espinal with a convincing 8-2 victory.
In dual season action, Cook is 4-2 this year at flight one in singles competition. She is coming off of an impressive three-set win over nationally-ranked No. 99 Ava Vilcek of Hawaii.

ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE

Long Beach State Women's Tennis had an excellent Fall off the court as well. The Beach Tennis team finished the semester with an impressive 3.74 grade point average to win the LBSU Athletics Team Academic Award.
All eight players on the roster were named Academic All-Stars, while two were named to the Dean's List, and three earned President's List honors.
In addition, Long Beach State boasted three players with perfect 4.0 GPAs during the fall semester.

RHODES TENNIS CENTER

The Terry L. Rhodes Tennis Center is the home of the nationally recognized Long Beach State Tennis Program.
The 12-court complex, which opened in the Fall of 2008, features a unique design with four feature courts divided by a 40-foot-wide public concourse. Grandstands for spectator seating have been placed on four of the six varsity courts. All six of which are lighted.
Two gifts from Long Beach State alums have resulted in the construction of the on-campus tennis complex for the Beach Tennis team. Terry Rhodes, a 1962 graduate, generously gifted $1.25 million dollars to enhance the new tennis complex and endow multiple women's tennis scholarships.
The Beach also play in front of a full-sized electronic scoreboard, courtesy of a generous gift from the Hendricks family. It was dedicated in memory of former LBSU Women's Tennis Coach Gloria Hendricks and her husband, Bob. The family also includes former Long Beach State tennis player Cindy (Hendricks) Robbins, her husband Les Robbins, both 1974 alums, and brother John Hendricks. The 40-foot-high scoreboard displays match scores on all six competition courts via wireless controls.

STAYING SOCIAL

Follow Long Beach State Women's Tennis on Instagram and Twitter at @LBSUTennis. Fans can stay up-to-date on all things Long Beach State by following @LBSUAthletics via Twitter. Be sure to "like" us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter at @LBSU.

TENNIS TRADITION

The traditional player cheer pre-match and each time the team wins a match point is "Here We Go Beach!" All Beach fans are encouraged to follow the team's cheer with their own "Here We Go Beach!"

NEXT UP

The Beach continue their homestand as they welcome Dartmouth to Rhodes Tennis Center on Thursday, March 21 at 2 p.m. Live scoring will be available via BeachLiveStats.com.