The second-seeded 49ers were crowned Big West champions for the third consecutive year on Sunday after upsetting top-seeded UC Irvine with a 4-1 victory.
Head coach Jenny Hilt-Costello ignored each team’s seeded positions, however, and said that the matchup featured two even teams.
“Most people know Irvine thought it was an upset,” Hilt-Costello said. “We went into it thinking that we had a legitimate shot to beat them.”
The victory not only extended LBSU’s season with an NCAA tournament berth but also snapped UCI’s (22-4) 20-match win streak. The 49ers (21-3) increased their own winning streak to 13 and have now won the conference title nine of the last 10 years.
LBSU had a rocky start, falling behind in all three doubles matches at one point, but it was able to earn the team’s first point of the match with two 8-6 victories.
The 49ers defeated the Anteaters with three singles wins, capped off by a surging come-from-behind effort by senior Sarah Cantlay, who beat UCI’s Franziska Goettsching 5-7, 6-0 and 6-1.
The two teams met once in the regular season, when LBSU lost 4-3. Hilt-Costello said that now, with a few lineup alterations and more practice, the team was in a better position for the rematch.
“We felt that we were a different team now than we were when we played them back in February,” Hilt-Costello said, “and that we had a shot in every position to win, so we thought we had a good shot to take the title.”
After a 4-0 sweep of UC Davis in Friday’s semifinals and a 4-1 win over Santa Barbara on Saturday, Hilt-Costello said her players felt more confident than they had all season going into Sunday’s championship against UC Irvine.
LBSU is still waiting to find out whom it will face in this week’s NCAA tournament. Hilt-Costello said she expects to find out by Tuesday.
