49ers Host Final Two Home Matches Friday and Saturday
Three Weeks Remain in the Regular Season
April 5, 2007 FULL STATISTICS
NATIONAL STATISTICS LONG BEACH, CA-- Long Beach State (7-12, 3-5 MPSF) will host two key MPSF matchups on Friday and Saturday to close out their home schedule when they host No. 9-ranked San Jose State (10-9, 3-4 MPSF) on Friday and No. 1-ranked Stanford (17-1, 6-0 MPSF) on Saturday. Both games are at noon, as Saturday, prior to the opening sprint, the 49ers will honor its six seniors. San Jose State comes in winners of four straight, while the Cardinal, prior to play at UC Irvine on Friday night, have won 15 straight. The 49ers snapped their seven-game losing streak on Wednesday with a win over UC Santa Barbara LAST TIME OUT
Christina Wensman scored the game-winner with 5:44 left in the fourth period as Long Beach State snapped a seven-game losing streak with two fourth quarter goals to defeat host UC Santa Barbara (13-13, 2-5 MPSF) 8-7 on Wednesday afternoon. The 49ers, at full strength for the first time in six games with the return of Cecilia and Marina Canetti from the World Championships, had Wensman, Marina Canetti and Ashely Heaslip each score two goals a piece. In a game that saw five ties, Megan Winchell tied the game at 7-7 with a goal at 7:26 in the fourth period. NEXT ON THE POOL DECK
Following this weekend, LBSU will play at Arizona State on Saturday, April 14 at noon and at UC Irvine on Thursday, April 19 at 7 p.m. The team will then head back to Tempe for the MPSF Championships on April 26-29. The team then is the host institution for the NCAA Championships at the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Base in Los Alamitos from May 11-13. The championships will feature eight teams and tickets are on sale now by calling (562) 985-4949.
AT THE HELM
Catharine von Schwarz, a member of the U.S. National Team for eight years is in her first year as the head coach. While at UCLA, she won four-straight national titles. Von Schwarz takes over a program that has had four-straight winning seasons and 20 wins in three of those campaigns. GOLD MEDALIST ON THE SIDELINES
Assistant Coach Heather Petri returned from the World Championships in Melbourne, Australia a golde medalist after the U.S. beat Australia for the title. Petri, a two-time Olympian, is an eight-year veteran of the squad. Cecilia and Marina Canetti's team, Brazil, finished ninth. Former 49ers Tara Campbell and Alison Braden finished fifth with Canada, while former All-Americans Roberta Stewart (New Zealand) and Angelica Garcia (Puerto Rico), also participated in the games. SCORING THREAT AT FULL STRENGTH
The 49ers are at full strength this week as four players have at least 20 goals on the season. Seniors Christina Wensman (34 goals) and Megan Winchell (25) are a top the leaderboard, while Cecilia and Marina Canetti each have 21 goals. Marina leads the team with a .362 scoring average, and also has a team-best 63 earned ejections. Wensman leads the team in assists with 20. CENTURY MARK WITH IN REACH
With 14 goals over her last four games Christina Wensman is two goals away from becoming the ninth 49er woman to surpasse 100 goals in her career. The team's second leading scorer from a year ago enters Friday's match with 98 career goals. KEEPER OF THE NET
Senior Kim Hayes currently ranks third all-time in career assists with 346 heading into Friday's match with the Spartans. With 207 saves last year, Hayes was fifth on the single-season charts and with 139 this year she is currently ninth. She is one of just four goalkeepers to amass 200 saves in a season. WHERE THEY RANK
Stanford ranks third nationally in offense (12.9 goals per game), San Jose State is ninth (10.7) and the 49ers are 34th (8.1)... defensively, Stanford ranks third in goals allowed (5.5), the Spartans are 39th (10.1) and The Beach is 41st (10.7).
KEEPING THEM CLOSE
Already this season, six of the 49ers losses have been by three goals or less. Furthermore, loses at Hawaii (10-9), to Loyola Marymount (10-9) and Santa Clara (11-10 in double overtime) have been by a single goal.
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