Today, the Long Beach State women’s tennis team is back at the Rhodes Tennis Center @ 2pm to take on the visiting Louisville Cardinals.  The 49ers look to roll with the momentum they got from their sweep of Cornell, while the Cardinals are riding high on a five-game winning streak after dropping six in a row.

On Wednesday, we ran an article about how this group of 49ers have that international flavor, and how that’s no accident.  It’s also no accident that one of those overseas players, freshman Anais Dallara, is playing amazingly well early in her career here in the states.

Originally from Valbonne, France, Dallara was ranked as high as –4/6 in the women’s French Tennis Federation while attending College De L’Eganaude.  Last year, she was the champion of the French Singles Tournament in Cannes.

Does that ranking look confusing?  I mean, what is –4/6 anyway?  Well, that’s just some of the obstacles that Long Beach State coach Jenny Hilt-Costello had to navigate.  Even though the Press-Telegram’s Bob Keisser wrote that her best recruiting tool is her passport, that couldn’t be further from the truth.  Yes, the players from overseas have made this program what it is, but LBSU doesn’t have the money to send any coach around the world to recruit.

“I’ve had to adjust as I go,” says Hilt-Costello.  What would a UCLA girl know about international tennis rankings?  “Not much.  At one point I was looking at players I shouldn’t have been looking at… we had girls sending us tapes that we needed to transfer from tapes to discs… it was kind of crazy… I’ve gotten more confident as a recruiter now.”

Hilt-Costello has now found herself looking at YouTube clips and using the contacts she’s made over the last few years.  That’s how Dallara found Long Beach. 

A member of her academy contacted Hilt-Costello, and according to Dallara, “I had really good contact with Jenny.”  So, without ever having stepped foot stateside, Dallara left home and arrived in Long Beach this fall, ready to play some tennis.

“Every thing was so big,” says Dallara.  “I don’t like the food.  I didn’t eat for the first week.  And the practices were very hard.  Like, very hard.  After the first month I wanted to go home.”

But she stayed, and it’s been a good thing for LBSU tennis.  Dallara has only dropped two matches this season at the No. 4 singles spot, and has become a dynamic doubles player at the third doubles position with Rachel Manasse.  The duo dropped their first match of the year last week.

So now, after adjusting to the stateside game that she calls, “way more powerful,” Dallara is past the awkward moments that come along with culture shock.

“When I got here, on my first day—in France we kiss on the cheek to say hello.  You don’t do that here.  But I didn’t know.  I was so embarrassed.”

At the risk of sounding corny, now that she’s settled in and adjusted, she’s the one embarrassing the competition on the court.

Come out today at 2pm to see Dallara and the 49ers take on Louisville!