8:15am | Deborah Armstrong and Klaudia Malenovska both battled through three set matches and each one earned the win as No. 61 Long Beach State defeated No. 29 Sacramento State 5-2 on Saturday.

Long Beach State lost the doubles point, as Sacramento State returned to their normal lineup. Inserting Tatsiana Kapshai back into the lineup, No. 45 Rebecca Delgado/Kapshai beat Anais Dallara/Malenovska 8-2. Baca/Meliuk then grabbed the point for the Hornets, defeating Jaklin Alawi and Rachel Manasse 9-8, while Sarah Cantlay and Julie Luzar took the final match, winning 8-5 over Lohsheidt/Knoebl.

In singles, however, Long Beach State won five out of six matches to take the match. Dallara’s strong play continued, as she defeated a ranked opponent in No. 89 Kapshai, winning 6-3, 6-3. The 49ers improved depth also showed, as Manasse at No. 5 and Cantlay at No. 6 both had easy wins, Manasse dropping Sophie Lohsheidt 6-1, 6-3, and Cantlay defeating Katherina Knoebl 6-3, 6-2. Clarisse Baca was the Hornets’ lone winner in singles, beating Alawi at No. 4 6-4, 6-4.

With the match still in doubt and Long Beach State leading 3-2, both No. 2 and No. 3 singles went to a full third set, as Armstrong dropped her second set but rallied to win at 7-5 on her second match point, winning 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 to clinch the win for Long Beach State. With the win, Armstrong tied Assistant Coach and former player Hannah Grady for the most combined wins in program history at 172.

Malenovska, in her first match back off of suspension, played at No. 2 singles, and dropped her first set to Delgado and fell behind 5-2 in the second set before rallying to take the second set in a tiebreak 7-6. She then won a second tiebreaker after falling behind again in the third set and, repeating her actions from the second set, fought back and won another tiebreaker. Winning 4-6, 7-6, 7-6, Malenovska’s 3 hour, 40 minute match finished out the five-hour, 10-minute team dual.

The No. 61 49ers return to the Rhodes Tennis Center for one more match over the weekend today, hosting Columbia at 11 a.m.