By Blare Parke
A young Long Beach State women’s tennis team found success in their singles matches at The Beach Tennis Fall Invitational this weekend.
The Beach made a strong statement on the first day of the fall tournament, advancing four freshmen to the round of 16. The team had six freshmen making their collegiate debut on Oct.3. The only returning player from last year’s team is junior Paulina Martinessi.
The tournament, hosted by LBSU and held at the Rhodes Tennis Center, kicked off the 2024-2025 season. The tournament featured nine Big West teams and had a singles and doubles draw.
The first round saw four LBSU freshmen dominate their matches with Cecilia Costa scoring a victory over Cal State Fullerton’s Diana Yanotovskaya 6-3, 6-2, Diana De Simone overcoming Cal State Northridge’s Sydney Wilson to scores of 6-4, 6-2, Pamela Badillo shutting out UC San Diego’s Athena Wardy 6-0, 6-0 and finally Thea Jagare defeating UC Davis’s Kaia Wolfe 6-1, 6-1.
LBSU freshman Cecilia Costa played her way to the quarterfinals in the four-day Beach Tennis Fall Tournament held at the Rhodes Tennis Center. Costa made her collegiate debut for The Beach along with five other freshman players. Photo Credit: Devin Malast
In the round of 32, all four freshmen in the round (Jagare, Costa, De Simone and Badillo) advanced to the round of 16 with impressive wins against CSUN and UC Santa Barbara.
Jagare lost her first set to CSUN’s Victoria Santibanez 6-1 before winning the final two sets 6-3, 6-1. Jagare visibly frustrated her opponent by attacking the baseline and forcing errors en route to a big win for The Beach.
“I was nervous but I felt like I was just gonna play for it,” Jagare said. “Then I just got into it and felt that it was really fun and I just kept going.”
LBSU freshmen Daisy Carpenter and De Simone paired up in doubles to win their first-round match and advance against UC Irvine’s Mikaela Hinton and Haily Huynh 8-3.
With six of the seven members of the team being freshmen this season, LBSU head coach Jenny Hilt-Costello looked to her sole returning player Martinessi to take on a leadership role.
“We talked to her about being that leader and team captain to the girls and she has helped educate them on what’s coming, what to expect and has been somebody that they can go talk to,” Hilt-Costello said.
On Oct.4, all four LBSU singles contenders had their tournament runs cut short with losses in the quarterfinals.
Freshman Daisy Carpenter debuted on Oct. 3 at the Rhodes Tennis Center for the Beach Tennis Fall Tournament and walked away with two singles wins and a doubles win. The Beach ended the tournament with a 29-13 singles record. Photo Credit: Devin Malast
Badillo and Costa both won their round of 16 matches against their respective UC Davis opponents but fell short in the quarterfinals. UCSB’s Raphaelle Leroux took out Badillo 6-3, 7-5 and Fullerton’s Sein Myoung defeated Costa 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (7-4.)
Although no LBSU players remained in the main draw, The Beach was still able to rack up five wins on Saturday in the extra matches.
Martinessi and Jagare each picked up two wins on the day, one in their singles match and one in their respective doubles matches.
The Beach Tennis Fall Invitational came to an end on Sunday after four long days of competition. All seven players were back in action, producing mixed results.
De Simone, Costa, and Badillo all closed out the tournament with wins on Sunday, improving their records in the singles matches to 4-1.
“The girls showed so much toughness and fight this weekend. This is a longer tournament than usual and the girls fought every day and never complained. Overall, I give this weekend an A,” Hilt-Costello said.
The teams of Jagare/Badillo and Martinessi/Costa both won their doubles matches against the University of Hawai’i , while De Simone/Carpenter suffered a tiebreak 7-6 loss to Cal Poly’s Eliza Bates/Anushree Shekhera.
LBSU closed out the tournament with a record of 20-12 in singles matches.
Top seed Julia Haynes of UCSD won the singles draw 6-4,6-2 while Myoung/ Nikitash of CSUF won the doubles draw 8-4.
Next up for LBSU is the ITA Southwest Regionals on Oct. 17.
