April 3, 2008

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -

In perhaps their strongest effort of the year, the UC Santa Barbara women's tennis team came up just short today against visiting No. 49 and 1st place conference leader Long Beach State, 4-3. The loss extends the Gauchos slide to four games, and they now find themselves at 7-11 overall, and 2-3 in Big West play.

"We're not discouraged at 4-3 with Long Beach," head coach Pete Kirkwood said. "They beat Irvine 6-1, Northridge 6-1, Fullerton 7-0, basically mowing through the conference. We feel pretty good about how we played today."

In doubles play, Long Beach State lead off at No. 2 with an 8-3 victory, as Stephanie Jeanes and Jessica Weeks defeated the Gaucho pair of Asagi Onaga and Jill Damion. UC Santa Barbara responded promptly when the duo of Tova Hausman and Brittany Kausen took down the 49ers Deborah Armstrong and Lisa Sutton 8-6. The Gauchos sealed the doubles point at No. 1, as Charlotte Scatliffe and Marta Simic dropped the No. 31 ranked doubles team in the country, of Hannah Grady and Stephanie Bengson 8-6.

Long Beach State roared back in singles play, winning the first four matches to capture the victory against UCSB. Nationally ranked Hannah Grady started the winning trend for Long Beach State, when she defeated Marta Simic in straight sets 6-0, 6-3. The match was official when 49er Stephanie Jeanes ousted Charlotte Scatliffe 6-2, 7-6 (6), at the No. 4 doubles slot.

UC Santa Barbara returns to action this Saturday at Loyola Marymount University. First serve at the LMU Tennis Center is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. (PT).

Complete results listed below

Long Beach State 4, UC Santa Barbara 3

Singles
No. 1 Hannah Grady (LBSU) def. Marta Simic 6-0, 6-3
No. 2 Stephanie Bengson (LBSU) def. Jill Damion 6-2, 6-1
No. 3 Asagi Onaga (UCSB) def. Deborah Armstrong (LBSU) 6-4, 7-5
No. 4 Stephanie Jeanes (LBSU) def. Charlotte Scatliffe (UCSB) 6-2, 7-6
No. 5 Tova Hausman (UCSB) def. Jessica Weeks (LBSU) 6-4, 6-3
No. 6 Lisa Sutton (LBSU) def. Brittany Kausen (UCSB) 6-2, 6-3

Singles order of finish: 1, 2, 6, 4, 3, 5

Doubles
No. 1 Simic/Scatliffe (UCSB) def. Grady/Bengson (LBSU) 8-6
No. 2 Jeanes/Weeks (LBSU) def. Onaga/Damion (UCSB) 8-3
No. 3 Hausman/Kausen (UCSB) def. Armstrong/Sutton (LBSU) 8-6

Doubles order of finish: 2, 3, 1