Women’s tennis: UCI women upset in final

OJAI - Top-seeded UC Irvine won two matches to earn the doubles

point, but second-seeded Long Beach State won four of five singles

matches to pull of a 4-2 upset in the title match of the Big West

Conference Women’s Tennis Championships Sunday at the Ojai Valley

Athletic Club.

The victory gives Long Beach State the program’s first conference

crown, as well as the Big West’s lone automatic bid to the NCAA

Tournament.

The doubles teams of Jonni Seymour and Tiffany Chang, as well as

Kristina Boss and Christie Posner, earned victories for UCI, ranked 65th

nationally.

But Long Beach’s No. 1 singles player, Anastasia Dvornikova, ranked

122nd in the latest collegiate rankings, defeated 81st-ranked Seymour,

6-3, 6-4, to set the stage for singles dominance by the 49ers.

Long Beach’s Cheryl Kindred defeated UCI’s Hui Leow, 7-5, 6-1, to earn

the Joan D. Johnson Trophy given to the tournament’s Most Valuable

Player. Kindred has also won her doubles matches against UC Santa Barbara

and Cal State Northridge.

Long Beach State’s Alena Dvornikova topped UCI’s Amy Tranckino, 6-1,

7-5, at No. 3 singles, while 49er Laura Thomas downed UCI’s Anna Bentzer,

6-3, 6-4, at No. 4 singles.

Posner was the lone singles winner for UCI, defeating Claudia

Argumedo, 6-1, 6-3.

Sunday’s Long Beach State victory avenged a 5-2 loss to visiting UCI

in the regular-season finale for both teams, April 13. It also ended the

Anteaters’ 13-match winning streak, which began March 2. Ironically,

UCI’s April 13 win ended a 16-match winning streak for the 49ers. It was

the only conference loss for Long Beach State and closed out a perfect

8-0 Big West dual-match campaign for the Anteaters.

Sunday’s match dropped Coach Mike Edles’ UCI squad to 17-7, while Long Beach improved to 21-2.

BIG WEST CONFERENCE

Championship match

Long Beach State 4, UC Irvine 2

Singles - An. Dvornikova (LB) def. Seymour, 6-3, 6-4; Al. Dvornikova

(LB) def. Tranckino, 6=1, 7-5; Bentzer (LB) def. Thomas, 6-3, 6-4;

Kindred (LB) def. Leow, 7-5, 6-1; Posner (UCI) def. Argumedo, 6-3, 6-3.

Doubles - Seymour-Chang (UCI) def. Dvornikova-Dvornikova, 8-5;

Boss-Posner (UCI) def. Kindred-Chan, 8-6.