Long Beach State University Athletics
Good News For LBSU'S Flowers
9/18/2007 12:00:00 AM | Softball
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News For LBSU's Flowers The 27-year-old Flowers, who was an All-American and played for a national championship team as a UCLA senior, will be joined in Tucson by the likes of Long Beach's Lisa Fernandez (who is on target to play in a fourth Summer Olympic Games), La Mirada's Jennie Finch and Santa Fe Springs' Laura Berg. Flowers, Finch (who starred at the University of Arizona) and Berg (a 1998 Fresno State graduate who is the other player, along with Fernandez, attempting to win a fourth softball gold medal) also played on the U.S. team that won gold medals in Athens in 2004. The 18 players, who will be coached by the University of Arizona's Mike Candrea, will embark on a 40-city exhibition tour of the U.S. in February, on which they will play games against some of the elite college teams. Three members of the squad will be designated as "replacement players" (alternates) on July 1 when the team's playing roster must be submitted for the Olympic competition. "I thought I had a pretty good week (in Chula Vista)," Flowers said Monday, a few hours before joining the rest of the 49ers coaching staff in individual workouts with their players. "It was a little stressful and I was a little sore (by Friday, when camp broke)." The Most Valuable Player during the Canada Cup (in British Columbia) in July, when she hit .650 with three home runs and 10 runs batted in while playing first base, Flowers tried to stay positive but not think a lot about the prospective Monday news over the weekend. "Even my mother-in-law (she is married to LBSU assistant's women's basketball coach Jason Flowers) asked me about it," she said. "But I just tried to enjoy the rest of the week and think whatever happens, will happen." And that it did.
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