12:45pm | Clearly there are some weeks that was, were, or be–really busy, and clearly that begs for another session of Notes on Our Napkin. So that’s what you get, after all the price is right.  So, in no particular order, let’s get ready to crumble.
 
Men’s Basketball occupies that LBSU chat room and management hopes that folks will send in season ticket renewals and get first priority for renewal, as well as—ta dah, opportunities for single-game tickets to the November 16th North Carolina game.
 
Niner traveling men’s volleyball coach and current Team USA head coach, Alan Knipe, will bring  his Team USA to the Walter Pyramid May 7-12 for an Olympic Qualifier – the 8-team NORCECA Men’s Continental Olympic Qualification Tournament.  How important, well the defending gold medalists don’t have a ticket to play just yet…the old 49ers on Team USA’s roster are Tyler Hildebrand, Tom Hoff, Paul Lotman and David Lee.
 
Now an odd fact or two, Niner men’s basketball has the nation’s 3rd longest home court winning streak at 22 games (tied with Syracuse and Kansas). It trails only Kentucky (52) and LIU-Brooklyn (27.)  The indoor hoopers also got more post season hardware for defender Larry Anderson and shooter Casper Ware.  Ware will get into one of those three point made for TV contests from New Orleans and earned his second honorable mention All American awards (see story) to go with the other mid major kudos.
 
In the sand game it doesn’t look promising for the brand new LB sand diggers to win the first NCAA team title but I figure that Tara Roenicke and Caitlin Ledoux could win the top seeded top flight pairs title…they defeated Summer Ross and Caitlin Racich of Pepperdine 19-21, 21-17, 15-6 in a matchup of two of the nation’s best teams.  And in the fifty flight, maybe Tyler Jackson and Janisa Johnson will contend when the Best in the USA go to Florida in May.
 
Men’s volleyball head out early Thursday for their two match session in Hawaii, still mathematically in the hunt for the MPSF tourney, top eight qualify…they split last week, Lost to #4 BYU, 3-0 and then with over half the house wearing Cougar colors, they beat The McGowan father and son combo 3-2… Five 49ers finished with double-figure kills in their first win over BYU since 2008…the baseball notes are in our feature story elsewhere, except the unpleasant result from Monday night when Washington State, who was last on a bus from UCLA via Marina Del Ray beat the Beach, last on a plane from Kansas, 11-1.
 
Softball (12-18, 0-0 Big West) Won at Loyola Marymount, 5-2 in their only game last week and begins BWC play at UCSB this week.  Erin Jones-Wesley starred, allowed just two runs while pitching another complete game
 
No. 48 Women’s Tennis (11-5, 5-0) Lost to No. 25 Nebraska 4-3 but came back to beat  Dartmouth 6-1, starring work from Rachel Manasse and Laura Bernard who upset one of the nation’s best doubles teams in an 8-5 win in the Nebraska match.
 
And in the under the radar sports:  Women’s Water Polo (10-11) Lost at No. 3 USC 8-3 then Won at Pomona-Pitzer 8-5 and at Claremont 14-6…Long Beach State has now won six of its last seven. Track & Field was best in the field events at the UC Irvine Spring Break Invitational.  Jacob Weintraub won the discus and finished third in the shot put.  In Women’s Golf played at The Battle at Rancho Bernardo Inn taking ninth place (+39), finishing ahead of six ranked teams…the star there for the home girls was Senior Monica Villarreal tied for 15th at 5-over 149.

Last add…
 
Where are theys: Todd Pridy, head varsity coach for Napa High, who played college baseball at Long Beach State and was drafted in 1992 by the Florida Marlins is offering another of his wildly popular Napa High Baseball Camps this weekend at the Napa High baseball field.   Hope he sends up another hitter like he was to the Bags. 

Our closing notes are of the calendar variety and next week is loaded with carbos and coffee and celebrations.  Tuesday is the men’s basketball banquet at the Grande, Wednesday the Student Athlete luncheon in the University Student Union and Thursday evening the faithful gather at fancy Old Ranch for the women’s basketball banquet. No doggie bags allowed.–DR. DAN