The No. 8 Long Beach State 49ers (4-4) will travel to Irvine this weekend to participate in the UC Irvine Invitational hosted by UC Irvine and Corona Del Mar High School. Play begins Saturday when The Beach takes on No. 17 Navy (9-6) at 9:50 a.m. at Corona Del Mar High School.
The tournament features 16 of the top collegiate teams in the nation. Games will be split between the Anteater Pool on the UC Irvine campus and Corona Del Mar High School. Eight games at each site will be played daily. Sixteen teams will compete in the two-day, four-game tournament, including the top five teams in the nation, No. 1 Stanford, No. 2 UCLA, No. 3 USC, No. 4 California and No. 5 Loyola Marymount.
The 49ers start the tournament in Bracket B at Corona Del Mar High School. Along with Long Beach State and Navy, Bracket B includes No. 2 UCLA, No. 3 USC, No. 6 UC Santa Barbara, No. 12 UC Davis, No. 17 Bucknell and the No. 2 Division II team, Redlands. The 49ers will face either UCLA or Redlands in their second game, depending on the outcomes of the morning matches.
LAST WEEKEND: Long Beach State lost a close game at No. 8 Pepperdine last Saturday, 8-7. Alexsandr Petrovic and Taylor Clute both scored two goals in the game, and though the game was tied, 6-6, after the third period, the Waves powered through to the win.
ALSO IN THE POOL: Senior Jeff Greenwood is Long Beach State’s leading goal scorer on the season with 14 heading into the UC Irvine Invitational and ranks 12th in the MPSF for goals scored. Greenwood is currently ninth on the Long Beach State all-time records list for goals scored with 159. Alexsandr Petrovic, who has 13 goals, is the only other 49er on the MPSF list at No. 16. Goalie Derek Wiebe-Bailey ranks third on the MPSF list with 7.63 saves per game. Defensively the 49ers rank 12th in the nation in goals allowed giving up just 8.38 goals a game.
A TALE OF TWO HALFS: The 49ers have outscored their opponents 42-27 in the final two periods of games this season but have gotten off to a slow start in the first half of games having been outscored 40-23 in the first two periods.
From LBSU reports