UC Irvine derailed Long Beach State’s aspirations of winning its seventh straight Big West crown at an Indian Wells venue that had seemed like the 49ers’ coronation spot for the past six years.
The top-seeded 49ers (19-6) relinquished their six-year stranglehold on the league after falling to No. 3-seeded UCI in the Big West Conference championship match on Sunday at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
The 4-1 loss halted LBSU’s conference winning streak at 38 matches and brought things full circle. The team’s previous Big West setback came against the same Anteaters by a 4-3 tally on March 1, 2007.
Irvine (13-10) also put an end to the 49ers’ 20-match winning streak in Big West tournament play. Coming into Sunday’s final, LBSU had not dropped a conference tournament meeting since losing the championship tilt against Cal Poly in 2003.
The Anteaters’ triumph allowed them to bag their first Big West women’s tennis title in school history.
Head coach Jenny Hilt-Costello’s 49ers, ranked No. 45 nationally by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, will have to sweat through Tuesday’s NCAA tournament selection show to see if they can nab an at-large selection to earn the program’s eighth overall NCAA bid.
The Beach dropped the top two singles matches as UCI’s Courtney Byron defeated freshman Jaklin Alawi 7-5, 6-4 at the No. 1 position and April Bisharat toppled sophomore Anais Dallara 6-0, 6-3 at the No. 2 spot.
Alawi closed the regular season with a 16-6 overall record. She started the spring playing at the No. 3 singles spot before gradually moving up to the No. 1 position where she compiled a 9-4 mark in regular season play. Dallara finished the regular season 16-6 overall, going 14-3 at the No. 2 singles slot.
Long Beach also fell at the bottom of the singles draw as the Anteaters’ Rebecca Kwan cruised past 49er freshman Anna Jeczmionka 6-3, 6-2 at No. 5 singles and Kristina Smith downed freshman Sarah Cantlay 6-3, 6-3 at the No. 6 spot.
Cantlay was defeated for the first time in Big West tournament singles play after collecting a 6-0, 6-0 win over Cal State Fullerton’s Lani Agsalud in the quarterfinals and a 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 decision over Cal Poly’s Jocelyn Davis in the semifinals.
Beach junior Deborah Armstrong’s match with Stephanie Hammel at No. 3 singles and Rachel Manasse’s duel with Brooke Bartlett at No. 4 singles were stopped after the Anteaters secured the four points necessary to earn the win.
Manasse was the only 49er to collect two singles wins without a loss in the Big West tournament after notching a 6-1, 6-1 win over Fullerton’s Jaycee Cruz and 6-1, 6-2 victory over Cal Poly’s Diane Filip.
The 49ers captured two out of three doubles matches against UCI to take the doubles point thanks to victories from Alawi/Manasse and Julie Luzar/Cantlay.
Luzar won all three doubles matches she participated in during the tournament.
Long Beach advanced to the Big West championship match after dispatching Fullerton, 4-0, in the quarterfinals and fending off Cal Poly, 4-2, in the semifinals.
The squad of four freshmen, three sophomores and one junior will learn its NCAA fate when the tournament selection show airs Tuesday on ESPNEWS at 2 p.m. The women’s singles draw will be unveiled on Wednesday at 3 p.m. on NCAA.com.
NCAA first-round matches get underway on May 14 and 15 as 64 teams will compete at 16 campus sites still to be determined.
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