LONG BEACH, Calif. — Long Beach State opened the 2026 season Friday by hosting the first day of the three-day Beach Tennis Winter Invite, highlighted by a dramatic comeback victory over Cal State Fullerton at the Rhodes Tennis Center.<\/p>\n
After dropping all three doubles matches to start the day, the Beach responded with resilience in singles play, earning four victories to secure the overall win against a seasoned Fullerton squad from a highly competitive conference.<\/p>\n
The turning point came at the top of the lineup, where\u00a0Thea Jagare<\/a>\u00a0delivered a statement performance in her first match of the season at the No. 1 singles position. Jagare battled back after losing the first set and facing a 5\u20132 deficit in the third, ultimately closing out a 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 win over Seha Yu in the deciding match.<\/p>\n In the deciding match, Thea was down 5-2 in the third set and ended up winning 7-5, which was pretty big, said Interim Head Coach\u00a0Gertjan De Wilder<\/a>. She was playing No. 3 last year, which is a different game style than when you’re in the No. 1 spot. She’s adapting to this game style and already doing well for it being her first match this season. For a team with two young coaches and young players to come from behind to win against a team like Fullerton, a great team in a competitive conference, says a lot.<\/p>\n In addition to Jagare’s comeback, the Beach received strong performances throughout the singles lineup.\u00a0Diana De Simone<\/a>\u00a0rebounded after dropping the opening set to defeat Martina Markov 4-6, 6-0, 6-3.\u00a0Daria Malaescu<\/a>\u00a0earned a convincing 6-1, 6-4 win over Chloe Schwarz, while\u00a0Pamela Badillo<\/a>\u00a0secured another three-set victory, defeating Milena Gevorgyan 6-1, 4-6, 6-3.<\/p>\n Alongside the Beach, CSUN battled to dominate both doubles and singles against Denver, setting the competitive tone for the weekend.<\/p>\n The tournament continues tomorrow, with doubles starting at 10 a.m. at the Rhodes Tennis Center.<\/p>\n Beach Tennis Winter Invite \u2013 Day 1 \u2013 Results\u00a0<\/p>\n Long Beach State vs Cal State Fullerton Singles CSUN vs DU Singles
Doubles
Emilie Lugon-Moulin and Chloe Schwarz (CSF) def.
Cecilia Costa<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Thea Jagare<\/a>\u00a0(LBSU) 7-6 [11-9]
Martina Markov and Seha Yu (CSF) def.
Paulina Franco Martinessi<\/a> and\u00a0Johanna Hiesmair<\/a>\u00a0(LBSU) 7-5
Milena Gevorgyan and Madison Schwarz (CSF) def.
Daisy Carpenter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Diana De Simone<\/a>\u00a0(LBSU) 6-3<\/p>\n
Thea Jagare<\/a>\u00a0(LBSU) def. Seha Yu (CSF) 4-6, 6-3, 7-5
Emilie Lugon-Moulin (CSF) def.\u00a0Cecilia Costa<\/a>\u00a0(LBSU) 6-4, 6-4
Diana De Simone<\/a>\u00a0(LBSU) def. Martina Markov (CSF) 4-6, 6-0, 6-3
Daria Malaescu<\/a>\u00a0(LBSU) def. Chloe Schwarz (CSF) 6-1, 6-4
Pamela Badillo<\/a>\u00a0(LBSU) def. Milena Gevorgyan (CSF) 6-1, 4-6, 6-3
Amelia Zylberman (CSF) def. Paulina Franco Martinessi<\/a> (LBSU) 6-1, 4-6, 6-2<\/p>\n
Doubles
Annette Robertson and Nicole West (CSUN) def.
Hana Becirovic Novak and Marley Lambert (DU) 6-0
Sofia Dermenjyan and Talia Harper (CSUN) def.
Claudia Martinez and Loiuise Wikander (DU) 6-1
Emma Moratella Sanz and Sandra Arguelles (CSUN) def.
Yunfei Cai and Natalie Cinkova (DU) 6-3<\/p>\n
Nicole West (CSUN) def. Loiuise Wikander (DU) 6-3, 7-5
Emma Moratella Sanz (CSUN) def. Marley Lambert (DU) 6-3, 6-2
Sofia Dermenjyan (CSUN) def. Natalie Cinkova (DU) 6-4, 6-2
Vito Solis Urdiales (CSUN) def. Hana Becirovic Novak (DU) 6-1, 6-7(4)
Annette Robertson (CSUN) def. Claudia Martinez (DU) 6-3, 2-6, 6-4
Sandra Arguelles (CSUN) def. Yunfei Cai (DU) 6-1, 6-1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONG BEACH, Calif. — Long Beach State opened the 2026 season Friday by hosting the first day of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-138015","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-long-beach","9":"tag-long-beach-headlines","10":"tag-long-beach-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}