Frustration and dejection was on the faces of the Long Beach State women’s tennis team Saturday as it fell to No. 42 Denver, 6-1.
Playing its third match in the span of four days, the 49ers (11-5) didn’t begin well as No. 2 and No. 3 doubles fell to Denver (9-4) to give the Pioneers a one-point lead going into singles at the Rhodes Tennis Center.
Singles didn’t fare much better.
Debbie Armstrong was defeated by Annette Aksdal, getting only two games with a final score of 6-1, 6-1. Armstrong’s doubles partner and No. 6 singles Lisa Sutton fell next to Bhavani Tirumurti 6-2, 6-3. Denver, only one match away from securing the win, would get the victory from the No. 1 singles.
Hannah Grady and No. 67 Mallory Voelker both had exceptional points, but Voelker grabbed the victory, 6-4, 6-3.
Julie Luzar lost the first set in tiebreaker and lost the second set, 6-4, to Denver’s Kyla Iwinski.
The big surprise came from No. 4 singles. Anais Dallara had taken the first set, 6-0, from Julia Bauregger in what had seemed to be a closed match until Bauregger came back to take the second set, 7-5. Dallara would fall, 6-4, in the third.
No. 3 singles also split sets. Rachel Manasse, after losing the first set in a tiebreaker, came back with a vengeance, winning the second, 6-3. Manasse dominated the third set, 6-1, to take the only 49er victory of the day.
LBSU returns to action against Dartmouth at the Rhodes Tennis Center on Thursday. The match is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m.