That slick looking Longbeachstate.com website lets you surf until the wax on your cyber board is gone. You can search by sport, by player, by stats, by results or by almost anything else.
The schedule page is the location where most followers head with a mixture of dread and optimism. Right now, if you go to women’s volleyball (arguably the most historical program on the LBSU sports menu) you see this hard and cryptic note: “Next Event: There Are No Upcoming Events”. For 25 consecutive years, the Beach has always had a December destination and three times (1989, 1993 and 1998) places as distant as Honolulu, Hawaii and Madison, Wisconsin hosted the hoisting of Beach national titles.
Figuring out this year, however, would make your actuary eat his abacus. How could you figure that a team with a world-class block coming back (Hampton and Serna) two dueling setters (Juley and Roenicke) and a veteran hitter (Delainey Aigner-Swesey) would not make the field of 64, even with the BWC arrival of Hawaii? But the but is that missing those five pieces (none of them even on the court when the season ended) is that not even an outstanding coaching job by Brian Gimmillaro could save a season. LB ended up with a decent 18-11 final record but the phone never rang.
Silver lining—sure-—the young replacements got baptized under fire and, with a great recruiting class coming in, the 49er future is bright.
Now back to your regular seasons still in progress. The brightest star of hoops was the student favorite senior guard Peter Pappageorge who had a great scoring effort in a loss to Arizona set a career high in points, (23) and led Long Beach State past Fresno State on the road, 69-61. How did he do it? Pappa hit four three-pointers and was a perfect 7-7 from the line.
The other Niner names included Mike Caffey (13 points and six assists) and James Ennis who was a rebound shy of a double-double with nine boards and 11 points. Big boy Dan Jennings sat out in the second half with a hard blow to the head but word is he will be okay. The 49ers play at Loyola Marymount on Thursday November 29 and then get Fresno State in a rematch in the Walter Pyramid at 7PM on Monday, December 3.
The net ladies started their road trip trailing by as many as 22 points early in the game, but it never gave up as it put together a big second-half effort to top Utah Valley, 77-69 on Friday. Sunday, well that would be at #1 Stanford and although super-soph Alex Sanchez had a game-high 19 points in Utah, Stanford at Maples Pavilion is too much. The 49ers lost 77-41 but Ms. Sanchez led LBSU (3-3) with 14 points, seven rebounds and two assists. Sophomore Bianka Balthazar added eight points, while classmate Devin Hudson finished with seven points and seven boards. Long Beach State returns to the Pyramid this Sunday, to face still another Pac-12 team, Arizona (but remember they did beat Washington). First whistle is 1PM.
DOT DOTS—Beginning Dec. 1, Auburn will pay Gene Chizik $48,611 PER WEEK to NOT coach. He will get paid like this for the next 155 weeks…former LBSU student president Wayne Smith, who played track and then personally got the Beach Pride referendum passed has a new dream. In his own words, “I have begun my journey as a professional track cyclist working towards the 2016 Olympics!!! I am trying to build up the largest support team I can and would love your help. If you could please start by liking the TEAM NATER Facebook page that would be great.” Wayne is the youngest of five kids and grew up in Temecula California and already has some impressive sponsors, Bike Religion, CNP Nutrition, Good Karma Racing, Cast A Shadow, Muscletrac, Trigger Point and stableCORE.
Our in town foes, USC and UCLA both lost, SDSU frustrated the Boys of Troy and Cal Poly, yes that Cal Poly, beat UCLA.
Last add is a salute to men’s water polo team after the 49ers concluded their season on a high-note defeating Pacific 14-12 at USC’s Swim Stadium for fifth-place at the MPSF Tournament Sunday afternoon. With the victory, the 2012 squad finished with an overall record of 24-8 and 4-4 in conference play and becomes the second-most successful squad in school history. This year’s team only trials the 1981 team that finished with a 25-9 overall record and 6-0 in conference play including a second-place finish at the NCAA Tournament. Tough to compete with the BCS rich kids but progress is being made. DR. DAN