All the news that 49er fans want and need, and I don’t mean the paper fans in the crowd of 1742 people in the Gold Mine Saturday night. The attendance was huge, that is the 1742, and the temperature was not any more than, say, 1741.

For the stat geeks, the LB.com Player of the Week was soccer’s Sophomore Ashley Roese who scored the game-winning goal in overtime to lead the 49ers to a season-opening win 2-1 over Arizona. The crowd estimate was 601 for the first night game in school history at George Allen Field.

Next up for women’s soccer are two weekend matches, vs. Saint Francis (PA) Friday at 7PM and vs. Baylor Sunday at 1PM, both at George Allen Field. High hopes BTW that ultra-quick freshmen Liz Lyons will get cleared after a head-to-head collision with Arizona’s Kaufman left her down and almost out. You can pick her out with her black-and-gold number 9 or the big black-and-blue shiner under her eye.

Meanwhile, Niner women’s volleyball begins work for real this weekend, and needs to shake the frightening image of Misty May-Treanor setting to Slamming Danielle Scott. The alums whipped the new gals 2-1 but Misty and Danielle are a pair that nobody else in the USA will offer. First up for the traveling spikers is Lipscomb, Friday at 2PM in the first game of the Kentucky invitational, but Saturday will be tough.

Ranked North Carolina comes up at 10AM and then the hosts Wildcats, ranked No. 13 play LBSU in the nightcap at 5PM pacific time. A split with NC and KY would be fine with me.

Now courtesy of the outstanding crew at Spiker News, (Donna Schultze and Bill King) here is their take on the foes for the first weekend:

Lipscomb, Lady Bison, (2011) 20-11 The Lady Bison are picked to repeat as Atlantic Sun Conference Champions. Lead by Sr. Kaycee Green, conference POY, avg. 3.47 kps. and Soph. Lauren Ford, 3.17 kps. This will be the first time that these two programs will have met.

North Carolina, Tar Heels, (2011) 24-9 NC return 10 players and boasts the #8 recruiting class in the country. Lead by OH, Soph., All American Chaniel Nelson, 1.02 bps and OH Sr. All American Emily McGee, 4.41 kps. The beach last played the Tar Heels in 1999, and won in 4 sets.

University of Kentucky, Wildcats, #13, (2011) 26-6 Currently ranked #13 in the pre-season poll and has been picked 2nd in the Southeastern Conference. The Wildcats advanced to the elite 8 last year. Lead by Sr. Libero All American Stephanie Kiefot, 4.83 dpg, and OH, Jr. All American Whitney Billings, which lead the team in double doubles. Long Beach last played Kentucky in 2004. The Beach have a 3-0 overall record against the Wildcats.

Last Add—Niners on the Move—Three valued faces will leave LBSU for new places. The most jarring departure for the 49er faithful is a seven-year vet who came in from the U of Texas and followed on the path of community relations legends DeDe Smith Rossi and Pat West.

That would be Jessica Davidson Dugaw who up and ran great events from smallish receptions to team banquets and the massive Jewels of the Night. She came in as a Davidson but when Mr. Dugaw came into the picture and married Jessica she knew the relocation clock was ticking. He picked up a grad degree and the commute these days was just too long. Expect JDD to get poached by USC in a couple of weeks and move closer to both of their jobs.

The Niners also lost two track assistants, Distance coach Patrick Cunniff who will head back to his alma mater at Georgia, and sprint/hurdles and relays coach Shaun Meinecke said to be headed to a similar post at the U of Wyoming. Cunniff’s departure is a difficult one given his great work with the runners last year and the now there is an upcoming cross country season.

Back to the volley world, perhaps it is just ironic that Coach Brian Gimmillaro held his post-match team meeting (with both teams and his big boss CSULB President F. King Alexander) in the training room. The featured alums traded stories with their former coach but injuries to Haleigh Hampton and Erin Juley have clouded the 49er future. Hampton looks done for the season and Juley didn’t play for two reasons. Tara Renicke is tanned rested and ready and Juley is still on the mend from her off-season surgery.

The three games in 24 hours or so means both setters will have to work. The bigs looked pretty good, that would be Alma and Bre, with nice court coverage from Tyler, Chelsea, and all around jumping jack Janisa Johnson. So the question marks this weekend are what the Beach can get from Delaney and Kitan. We will know more by Monday.

–DR. DAN