\u201cWe\u2019re out,\u201d said LBSU women\u2019s volleyball coach Brian Gimmillaro.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in,\u201d said LBSU women\u2019s soccer senior star Nadia Link.<\/p>\n
It was that kind of weekend in the world of Forty-Niner athletics. The \u201cwe are out\u201d call was expected after a season on the sink. Before the campaign even began, LBSU looked like a strong entry. Two middle blockers with size (6’6″ Haleigh Hampton and 6’4″ Alma Serna) and experience. A returning setter (Erin Juley) who had worked a year in the complicated Gimmillaro system. And then you add a smart and equally experienced offensive impact player in Delainey Aigner-Swesey) and wow.<\/p>\n
Oh yes, The Beach also had local leapers Janisa Johnson and Tyler Jackson, some well regarded recruits, a star from the NCAA runner up Sand Volleyball team (Tara Roenicke), and a 26th consecutive NCAA tournament invite seemed locked and loaded. Then, piece-by-piece that championship jigsaw puzzle fell apart.<\/p>\n
Hampton overdid a summer workout regimen and tore a labrum in her shoulder. Serna fought hard in the training room, but not had enough in the classroom. Injuries, some going back to her high school days, canceled Juley, and Aigner-Swesey (who was a one woman force with 19 digs, two solo blocks and eight kills that single-handedly dismantled Pacific) suffered a season ending injury to one of those working hands.<\/p>\n
Last weekend, old foe Hawaii came to town and incoming Olympic women\u2019s coach Karch Kiraly did the pronouncing for Prime Ticket TV. The remodeled Mid looked great and, for a while, the home team did as well. Won game one and almost got game two and three but the Bows kept the Beach youngsters up past bed time and got the win. Same result against CSUN Saturday night and Coach Gimmillaro said he was out of the post-season party for the first time since Reagan was president.<\/p>\n
Switching to soccer, the Beach brass loaded up the facilities for Mauricio Ingrassia and his Elite Eight team. Lights for night games (that\u2019s the reason why there were so many Friday night conflicts with volleyball), new scoreboard and some talented transfers. As was the usual in the late season, another overtime and another \u201chandball in the box\u201d call. Result\u2014a flattening fifth place finish and outside-looking-in for the Big West tournament.<\/p>\n
In the post-game tailgate, Nadia and pals were banking on a decent RPI (40-ish) and last seasons impressive run to get another invite. Likely the tourney champ will go as LB did last year to a regional at UCLA but there are also possible regionals in San Diego and Pepperdine. Away from the buffet, others worried saying, \u201c\u2026even with a good RPI there is no way we make the NCAA. We are 12-7 and finished 5th in the Big West. The conference is OK but will only have one team qualify, possibly two\u2026We had a good pre-season, but those heartbreaking losses\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
DOT DOT DUSTING\u2014<\/strong>John Bowker, the one time Niner, made the world series and was a star! He had 5 RBIs, a three-run home run and a two-run double. One additional note, John was playing for the Yomiuri Giants in Game 1 of the Japan Series and yes he was up with the SF Giants a couple of years ago<\/p>\n The LBSU ticket office is helping passionate Beach basketball fans with tickets to nearby road games: USC (11\/13\/12) \u2013 $15; Arizona (11\/19\/12) \u2013 $38; Fresno State (11\/25\/12) \u2013 $20; LMU (11\/29\/12) \u2013 $20 and UCLA (12\/18\/12) \u2013 $25. Supplies are limited but seats for Niner home games are still available\u2026(562) 985-4949<\/p>\n The last regular season bout for Beach soccer was over Hawaii…The SID report, \u201cLBSU scored early and often with three goals in the first half. Senior Nadia Link started it off with her eighth goal of the season and 32nd of her career. She moved into a tie for second among the program\u2019s all-time scoring leaders, and needs just two more to eclipse the 26-year old school record held by Janet Fettig (33). Link also finished with an assist\u2026Junior Eileen Maes added her team-leading ninth goal of the year, while sophomore Kristyn Benavidez, junior Jessika Oseguera and freshman Elizabeth Lyons also found the back of the net.\u201d<\/p>\n Nice crowd when the 49ers lost that thriller with No. 9 Hawaii\u20262,466, one of the best ever\u2026 junior setter Tara Roenicke finished with eight kills, 45 assists and 10 digs for the 49ers.<\/p>\n Reno baseball player Garrett Hampson is headed to the Dirtbags of Long Beach State\u2026he will sign a letter of intent at a Nov. 14 ceremony at the school (that\u2019s the first day of the fall signing period)\u2026Hampson chose the Dirtbags over offers from Loyola Marymount, Nevada, UCLA and San Francisco.<\/p>\n Century Clubbers enjoyed hearing from former MLB star Dave Frost (who prepped at Millikan) recalling his days with the Angels\u2026in 1979 both he and Nolan Ryan had 17 wins but Nolan was able to go free agent to Houston for a million and Frost was getting just a $15,000 raise from 35K to 50K\u2026.\u201dI decided to sit out spring training but then the Angels blinked and paid me $100,000, which was about what I should have gotten in the first place\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Last of our diamond notes are the big local baseball scuffle about who can claim the Giants remarkable starting pitcher Barry Zito. BZ began his college career with success at Santa Barbara but then got lured to the struggling USC Trojans. So what color does he look best in? Blue and Gold or Cardinal and Gold? Or in this Orange October, maybe just black and orange with gold in his pockets\u2026.<\/p>\n The late super booster Art Johnson will be remembered in the ART JOHNSON SHOOT-A-THON (which will follow the women\u2019s basketball game vs. Santa Clara) on December 9. Proceeds will support women\u2019s basketball scholarships and operations.<\/p>\n The big Beach win of the weekend was an 11-10 victory over No. 5 Cal in men\u2019s water polo. Sophomore Milos Vrzic collected five goals for the 49ers during a two-game road trip, three against Cal\u2026<\/p>\n Closing numbers, the BWC used media polls to generate chatter about the upcoming basketball season\u2026the Niner men earned 13 first-place votes and 194 points to emerge the favorite for the 2012-13 Big West men’s basketball title, and James Ennis was named to the Preseason All-Conference Team. The Long Beach State women’s basketball team was picked to finish fifth but did get one first-place vote\u2026and yes the search is still on for a point guard\u2026film at 11.\u2014DR. DAN<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cWe\u2019re out,\u201d said LBSU women\u2019s volleyball coach Brian Gimmillaro. \u201cWe\u2019re in,\u201d said LBSU women\u2019s soccer senior star Nadia Link. It was that kind of weekend in the world of Forty-Niner athletics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=434"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}