The No. 44-ranked Long Beach State women’s tennis team learned that it still has a ways to go before it can contend with the best collegiate teams in the country, and it found that out the hard way Friday.
In the second of three matches on the road in the Midwest, the 49ers suffered a 5-2 loss to a No. 19 Notre Dame squad that featured three singles ranked opponents.
The ‘Niners dropped those matches before they took two in the bottom half of singles play. Sarah Cantlay and Anna Jeczmionka were the only two players to pick up victories for LBSU.
In singles play, Anais Dallara battled to a close match with the No. 3 player in the country, Kristy Frilling, losing 6-3 6-4, while No. 63 Shannon Mathews routed Klaudia Malenovska 6-0, 6-2.
Meanwhile, Deborah Armstrong also lost to a ranked opponent in No. 105 Jenifer Kellner, 6-4, 7-6 (5).
Rachel Manasse lost after being pushed to the No. 4 slot, 6-4, 6-0 to Kristen Rafael. But the 49ers picked up the action at the bottom of the lineup as Sarah Cantlay rebounded from a first set loss for a convincing 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 win over Chrissie McGaffigan.
Jeczmionka also played well in her return to the lineup, defeating Julie Sabacinski 6-3, 6-2.
In doubles action, No. 22 Frilling/Matthews topped Dallara and Malenovska, 8-3, while the 49ers lost the No. 2 doubles match by the same score, as McGaffigan and Rafeal defeated Jaklin Alawi and Rachel Manasse, 8-3.
Cantlay and Julie Luzar pushed the third match to 8-5, but also fell to Kellner and Sabacinski as the 49ers dropped the point.
LBSU will close out its three-match road trip with a match against DePaul at noon on Saturday.
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