3:00pm | A recent first lady of Long Beach State, Dr. Sylvia Maxson, knew everything that there was to know about children’s literature. She was also a strong proponent of women in college athletics so this fall is a fine time to remember her and the work of noted American author Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888).
Alcott’s classic work, Little Women, was written and set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts and followed the lives of four sisters – Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy – and was loosely based on the author’s childhood.
The 2011 LBSU edition of little women also has a cast of four diminutive heroines, 5-6 stars Rosa Del Toro (cross country) and Nadia Link (soccer), and 5-7 volleyballers Janisa Johnson and Taylor Jackson.
We start our story with Rosa who just won the women’s Big West Championships with a school record time of 20:27.0 for the 6 K course in Riverside, the first 49er to win a cross country conference championship. Next up should be the NCAA Championships Nov. 21 at Indiana.
Ms. Link, as much as 5-6 on a good day is that well chronicled student, mother, and offensive juggernaut that carries her program game in and game out. Last weekend the Beach (13-5-1, 6-2-0 BWC) won two critical contests, defeating UC Davis, 2-0 and then Pacific, 4-2. That earned the 49ers the No. 2 seed and makes for their sixth Big West Tournament appearance in the last seven years. Nadia Link had two goals and three assists in the wins. Win Thursday and then play either Irvine or Davis on Sunday for the hardware.
Women’s Volleyball of course has big people that contribute too but the little women Johnson and Jackson is that has made the team a fancy 16-6, 10-2 Big West and ready to claim the hardware and hopefully a regional seed. The Beach beat UC Riverside 3-0 on Friday and Northridge 3-0 on Saturday. For the season Johnson, usually flying in from the back row, is third in kills with 211 and Jackson is the serving sensation with 19 aces from a wicked to handle sinkerball.
The big volleyball kids of the Beach, Haleigh Hampton and Caitlin Ledoux, now have a new sister in the swat machine, freshman Alma Serna. Serna provided unexpected punch with 11 kills on .668 hitting with no errors Saturday against the Matadors. Next up is a light week that would be at 10-13 Cal State Fullerton Saturday. So can Brian take the Titans lightly? “Oh, no, they are one of those teams where beating us would be a season-maker.” Message received.
DUSTING THE OUTBOX—One of those chat room cyber guys wondered “who had 72 days for the Kim Kardashian marriage to Kris Humphries?” Kris was one of the Minnesota guys started on his basketball career by Dan Monson and the wag had the nerve to ask if the wedding presents would be returned. Well it was an eight million dollar wedding.
The soccer sisters have seven seniors on the pitch and dreaming of a repeat of last year’s title win over Irvine. Shawna Gordon, Sidney Garza, Nicole Hubbard, Marysol Rosales, Jazz Strozier, Nicole Sweetman, and Kaitlyn Gustaves got their flowers before the start of the Sunday match.
Moving from the artistic elements of running with Rosa, kicking with Nadia and jumping with Johnson and Jackson, the athletic department is really into revenue sports, and I don’t just mean parking. That would be men’s basketball. ESPNU will televise Long Beach State’s game at Pittsburgh on Wednesday, Nov. 16, starting a string of 14 49er television games from the opening week until March gets it madness on for tournament time.
Long Beach State’s non-conference games at Louisville (Nov. 28) and Kansas (Dec. 6) will also be televised by ESPNU; while the LBSU game at North Carolina (Dec. 10) will be broadcast on ESPN3. The 49ers’ three games at the Diamond Head Classic in Hawaii will air on either ESPN2, ESPNU, or ESPN3. The 49ers’ tournament opener against Xavier (Dec. 22) will be broadcast on ESPNU at 8 p.m. (PT).
An ESPN network will broadcast both Long Beach State-UC Santa Barbara games with the Jan. 21 game played in Santa Barbara airing on ESPNU and the Feb. 22 rematch taking place in Long Beach being televised on ESPN2. ESPNU will also broadcast the LBSU-Cal State Fullerton game in Long Beach on January 28.
The Fox networks will broadcast LBSU’s home game against Pacific (PRIME TICKET) on January 14 and its road game at Cal State Fullerton (FS WEST) on March 3.
The 49ers could end up with two more games being nationally televised. The Feb. 18 BracketBuster game could be broadcast by one of the ESPN networks. The Saturday, Feb. 4, home game against Cal State Northridge could also be broadcast by ESPNU or FS WEST. Both of those networks will broadcast one of the four Big West Conference games scheduled for that day, with UC Santa Barbara at Cal State Fullerton, Pacific at UC Irvine and UC Davis at UC Riverside being the other games the networks can choose to televise.
Last add is really the last subtraction. Translated, All American middle blocker candidate Haleigh Hampton regularly donates lengths of her blond hair to the “Locks of Love” charity that fashions wigs for cancer patients. So I asked how long had her hair gotten and neither HH nor her mom Thea knew for sure but offered before and after pictures. Each cut is for between eight and twelve inches. Nice family and a nice idea.—DR. DAN
