4:50pm | Disclaimer: I was told that there wouldn’t be any math in this column but somewhere over the weekend numbers kept coming up.

For openers, the long view is back to looking pretty good for the fall stars of soccer and volleyball. Sunday afternoon Beach soccer (there is only the ladies version right now but that’s a topic for another day) scratched clawed and strategized their way to a very likely host spot in the Big West Semi-Final round with a 2-1 win over Valley tough CSUN. They are in second right now and the top two finishers host numbers three or four on Thursday November 4 with the championship game on Sunday, November 7th. Next up is Friday night on the road at Pacific’s Shrunken Diamond, that is to say a smaller than regulation field.

The soccer road has certainly been entertaining, with bodies falling more frequently than at Knott’s Scary Farm. Post match on Sunday, the seniors held their flowers but super soph Nadia Link held her head. A Northridge knock on her noggin left tears in her eye but this is arguably one of the toughest student-athletes at the Beach. She is a legit soccer mom who has a NASA-level game day schedule of child care (her 20-month-old daughter Adrianna dances non-stop eyed by family in a corner of the soccer field), travel to and from Walnut for sport workouts, for money work, and oh yes, leading the team in goals.

Link drew double coverage but seniors Bo Real and Lindsay (Sheriff) Bullock each scored in their last regular season home game. And how tough was the day? The Beach won despite being knocked to the turf more than some of the players that George Allen used to supervise on his namesake patch of grass and receiving a yellow card on their goalie (for delay of game.)

Not to discount cross country (where the ladies side has some great times) and water polo (of whom the spin doctors said, “No. 8 Long Beach State men’s water polo team lost, 11-10, in sudden victory to No. 6 UC Santa Barbara…”) the other major fall player is women’s volleyball. The headline for this supposedly tough encounter was best offered by web whiz Dansk who quipped “Well, now it’s like the freeway next to Nutwood. 57 straight, and counting.”  Translated, the top-ranked Titans could not live up to their billing and Brain Gimmillaro’s Beach gals ho-hummed their way to their 57th consecutive win dating back to, oh heck, numbers again, but any how it was just after the Lincoln administration.

LB did stumble in the first set and wound up winning 17-25, 25-23, 25-18, 25-17 in historic Titan Gym. After game one I sent a text message to Brian Gimmillaro about going to Michelle Osunbor since the Nutwooders were ganging up on Ledoux and Johnson.  Apparently he read it and sure enough Michelle had a career high in kills and the streak goes on for the rest of the Obama administration… well at least for another year. Osunbor set a career high with 13 kills, and also made five blocks, part of 14 overall for the 49ers on the night. LBSU returns home with critical matches against Cal Poly (Friday) and UC Santa Barbara (Saturday).

The traveling men’s volleyball exhibitionists got some fall work at the USC tourney and some new names in the news: Brad Hemmerling, a killing machine, Ian Satterfield a blocking machine and Colten Echave, a serving machine.  Next up for Coach Andy Read and lads, the Black ‘n Gold Game on Friday November 5th at 5:00pm.

Enough of the numbers, let’s close with a lot of closing quotes.

When Nebraska recruited footballer Ndamukong Suh, one thing that really captivated a serious pre-engineering student from Portland, Ore., was a mock-up of what players’ lockers might look like in a future locker room. So, in a perfectly timed coincidence, two hours after Suh was announced as the Big 12 male athlete of the year, the Huskers shut down its varsity football locker room and replaced 123 back-lit nameplates with 123 built-in Apple iPads.

Speaking of Big Red, my quote to Dr. Doug Robinson, CSULB VP for student affairs and originator of the “Bump and Run” defense while in his football days at Iowa State: “So let’s see, Texas beat Nebraska 20-13, that’s a plus 7 and Iowa State beat Texas 28-21 so that would make the CYCLONES a 14 point favorite over the Huskers on November 6th in Ames… I will charter the jet if you can get us good tickets!”

A favorite old football quote came after Florida Gator Doug Johnson threw a ball at Bobby Bowden after the FSU vs. UF game in 1998. A reporter asked “What would have happened if a Florida State quarterback threw the ball at an opposing coach?” Bowden said, “He would have hit him.”
 
After the loss to UC Irvine, “It was more of just luck on their side,” LBSU defender Nicole Hubbard said of the goal. “It was one lucky shot and it went in.” If both teams advance there will be a chance for redemption in the final. “Our goal is to go to the conference tournament and win that,” skipper Mauricio Ingrassia said. “And if it means forsaking the Big West regular season, then that’s fine.”