After winning the Western Regional competition, a Cal State Long Beach (CSULB) Moot Court Team has advanced to the national competition.

A two-person team from CSULB—consisting of senior political science major Ashley Hall and senior political science major Krist Biakanja—won all seven matches in the 13th annual American Collegiate Moot Court Association (ACMA) Western Regional competition last month held at CSULB.

Including Hall and Biakanja’s team, four Long Beach two-person teams will advance to the national championship held January 16 to January 17 in Miami at the Florida International University College of Law.

“This is the toughest regional in the country and they beat two teams that are probably among the top 10 if not the top five teams in the country,” said political science faculty member and team coach Lewis Ringel, who is now in his ninth year heading the program, in a statement. “I’m not surprised they won because I consider Ashley and Krist among the top 10 teams in the country.”

The other CSULB two-person teams advancing to nationals through the Western Regional are Amethyst Jefferson-Roberts, a senior Africana Studies and political science major from Compton, and Dominique Noble, a senior political science major from Santa Clara; and Julieta Hernandez, a senior Chicano/Latino Studies and political science major from Long Beach and Chris Nielson, a senior philosophy and political science major from Santa Ana. In addition, Jefferson-Roberts and Noble each won speaker awards as did CSULB’s Will Torres, a senior political science major from Glendale.

Moot Court simulates an appellate court proceeding and involves teams of student contestants and a mock trial. This year’s hypothetical case asked participants to argue for or against a fictional law requiring that women seeking an abortion undergo a transvaginal ultra-sound procedure and limiting what physicians can tell their patients about the risks of abortion.

“I expect to win,” Ringel said in a statement. “I’m not guaranteeing that, but I think it’s a realistic expectation based on how we have performed all year. We’ve been in five events so far this year and we’ve won all five and I see no reason to not think we can win. Our regional was hard fought, we have nothing but respect for our opponents and we are excited to head on to nationals.”