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8:15am | Long Beach State begins the team portion of the 2011 women’s tennis season this Friday, as the 49ers travel to No. 19 USC, starting play at 1 p.m. in Los Angeles. The 49ers, ranked No. 42 in the nation, start the year with their third-highest preseason ranking ever.
That ranking comes on the heels of a season where the 49ers finished the year ranked 41st overall, which was the third highest final ranking for Long Beach State ever. The team returns all seven members from that squad, giving Long Beach State a very experienced and talented group that is looking to defend their regular season Big West championship and pick up the team’s eighth Big West title.
The balanced 49ers are led by senior Deborah Armstrong, who has the second-most wins in program history, and needs just 15 combined wins in doubles and singles to take the top spot from assistant coach Hannah Grady. Armstrong ranks second behind Grady with 77 career singles wins, while she needs just a pair of doubles victories to pass Sandra Rocha and become the winningest doubles player in Long Beach State history.
While neither is currently ranked in the singles listings, the 49ers return two players that have been ranked nationally in singles in junior Anais Dallara and sophomore Jaklin Alawi. Both were first-team All-Big West selections last year in singles, while Alawi also earned a first team nod in doubles, while Dallara and Armstrong took second-team doubles honors. Alawi, the reigning Big West Freshman of the Year, went 21-13 in 2010 while playing primarily in the top spot in the rankings, while Dallara posted a 16-4 dual match record from the No. 2 position.
The 49ers also welcome back a pair of junior local players in Rachel Manasse and Julie Luzar. Manasse, a player that has been all over the Long Beach State lineup, went 19-5 while playing at No. 4 in the 49er lineup throughout the dual match season in 2010, while Luzar split time with sophomore Anna Jeczmionka at the No. 5 position in the lineup.
A late addition to the squad in 2010, sophomore Sarah Cantlay also returns for the 49ers in her first full year after arriving on the team in the spring semester last season, where she went 13-6 in singles and posted an 11-5 record in doubles with Luzar.
The final piece of the puzzle for the 49ers in the 2011 season is sophomore Klaudia Malenovska, who after being ruled ineligible for her first season on campus, competed for the 49ers in the fall and showed signs of the player who was one of the most highly touted recruits for LBSU in recent memory. Malenovska will not play Friday, as she serves the remainder of her suspension from the NCAA, but will provide an immediate spark for the 49ers when she joins the lineup in midseason.
Long Beach State plays their first three matches on the road, returning to the Rhodes Tennis Center for the team’s home opener on Thursday, Feb. 10, hosting Hawaii.