Women's tennis team swept by Long Beach State

The Cal Poly women’s tennis team lost its fourth-straight match Friday, 7-0 to Big West Conference power Long Beach State at Mustang Courts.

“It was a tough match,” said Mustangs sophomore Brittany Blalock. “But we’re a bunch of perfectionists, so there’s a bunch of things we can work on and improve upon.”

Long Beach State, No. 35 in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings and undefeated in conference play, lived up to its billing, said Cal Poly head coach Hugh Bream.

“They showed why they’ve won this conference five years in a row,” he said.

Right from the start, the 49ers cruised, and won the doubles point. The No. 1 and No. 2 contests were taken back-to-back by Long Beach State (13-6, 6-0 Big West), but Amy Markhoff and Diane Filip of the Mustangs were able to win the third, 8-4 against Deborah Armstrong and Lisa Sutton.

In their No. 3 doubles slot, Filip and Markhoff remained unbeaten, 8-0 and 9-0.

The No. 1 doubles match-up featured Blalock and fellow sophomore Steffi Wong against the 49ers’ Hannah Grady and Stephanie Bengson, who won 8-4, dropping Blalock and Wong to 11-6.

Grady and Bengson improved to 13-4 in doubles outings.

Wong said most of the matches were closer than their final scores may indicate.

“It was just a matter of a couple of points, or changing a few things,” she said. “We get another crack at them at the end of this month.

“We learned a lot from today, competitively and strategically,” Wong added. “We’re going to get more match experience and that’ll make us tougher, which is what we need.”

In singles, Blalock (7-10) once again faced Grady (13-5), who took the lead at the beginning of each set and ultimately won 6-2, 6-0.

Cal Poly (10-10, 3-3 Big West) hosts two more conference foes this upcoming weekend, facing UC Davis at 11 a.m. Saturday and UC Santa Barbara at 11 a.m. Sunday.

Bream still believes there is plenty of time for the Mustangs to correct their struggles.

“We’ve got three weeks left in the season, so I think that we really have to dig deep and, with a bit of a sense of urgency, take advantage of the opportunities that we have,” he said. “To be honest, I feel like we have another gear that we are capable to go to.”