Yep fighting against a guy with long legs is a pain when it comes to karate the moment they get a good distance the combat can become pretty one sided, but yeah if she was fighting with no faints at all and just sticking with basic forms that's not very good, sure they hit hard and in rl when it's against someone that doesn't fight karate they can work but for someone that actually trains karate faints are your best bet all the time or trying to overwhelm the other guy but for her that's not really an option.
Anyway take this rant from someone that trained karate for quite a few years.