Beach tennis breezes past Cornell

The No. 40 Long Beach State women's tennis team dominated Cornell, 7-0, Wednesday at the Terry Rhodes Tennis Center.

LBSU (10-4) started the match by grabbing the doubles point, which is awarded by winning at least two of three matches.


The 49ers' Hannah Grady/Jessica Weeks, Deborah Armstrong/Lisa Sutton and Anais Dallara/Rachel Manasse swept the doubles action.


In singles play, No. 4 Dallara was first off the court after cruising to a 6-1, 6-1 win over Cornell's Natalia Seyburn.

Grady, the lefty senior from Great Britain, had an exceptional game. Grady was merciless in her 6-1, 6-1 victory over Stephanie Kent — playing with clinical execution of angles, ball placement and coming to the net.

After struggling the first couple of games, Armstrong said opponent Elizabeth Googe "was tough to play [but] I adjusted" and after that, Armstrong never looked back. After winning the first set, 6-4, Armstrong only dropped one game to take the second set, 6-1.

"Every match is important for ranking," Armstrong said.


One of the closer matches of the day was No. 3 singles between Manasse and Cornell's Shayna Miller. Manasse, usually one of the first off the court, was struggling and obviously frustrated with herself. While Miller put up a fight, Manasse was the one to walk off the court with the 6-4, 6-4 win.


In No. 5 singles, the Beach's Julie Luzar took care of Leah Seyburn, 6-2, 6-4. Sutton rounded out the action with a 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory over Sinziana Chis.


Grady said, "It was a good warm-up … to get ready for two tougher matches."


LBSU faces two ranked teams, first on Friday against No. 75 Louisville and Saturday against No. 42 Denver at the Rhodes Tennis Center.