Long Beach State University Athletics
Volleyball hosts Thanksgiving Classic; heads to postseason
11/24/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 24, 2009
Long Beach, Calif. -
Complete Volleyball Release in PDF Format 
Thanksgiving Classic
This week marks the return of a Long Beach State tradition, the Thanksgiving Tournament, which this year will pit the 49ers against four teams, TCU, UNLV, Loyola Marymount and Utah. All four rank in the top 150 in the latest RPI, and should provide a solid test for Long Beach State in the coming week. The tournament starts on Friday, November 27 when the 49ers host the Horned Frogs of TCU at Noon, and then continues later that night with a match against UNLV at 7 p.m. Then on Saturday, the Walter Pyramid plays host to four matches, starting with Long Beach State and LMU at Noon. Then TCU will play UC Irvine, CS Fullerton will play UNLV and the 49ers close out the action with a second match, playing Utah as close as possible to 7:30 p.m.
23 And Counting
Long Beach State punched their ticket for the NCAA Tournament with a 3-2 win over UC Irvine last Saturday, extending their postseason appearance streak to 23 in a row and 24 overall. The 49ers made the NCAA Tournament for the first time in head coach Brian Gimmillaro's first year, 1985, and have made it every year since after missing in 1986. Long Beach State's 23rd consecutive tournament is matched by only three programs in the nation in Stanford, Nebraska and Penn State and only one of those programs, Penn State, has been led by the same coach for all of those appearances, as Brian Gimmilllaro has for the 49ers.
And Speaking Of The team will be headed to Legends Sports Bar and Grill in Long Beach on Sunday to catch the selection show and find out the draw for the postseason at Noon on ESPNNEWS. Fans are welcome to join!
Washington Weekly
Naomi Washington earned her second Big West Player of the Week award with two big performances, helping Long Beach State win a second straight Big West Championship and 10th overall. Washington began the week by leading the 49ers with 11 kills in a 3-0 victory, setting up a winner-take all match with UC Irvine. That was when the senior really shined, making 26 kills and a career-high 10 digs on the way to her first career double-double, hitting .421 to lead The Beach to a 23rd consecutive NCAA appearance.
Wrapping It Up
Long Beach State needed two wins to seal a NCAA bid and the Big West championship, and did just that last week, beating UC Riverside and UC Irvine. Long Beach State quickly dispatched UCR in a 25-18, 25-15, 25-22 victory as the 49ers held the Highlanders to .107 hitting. Then, against UC Irvine, along with Washington, the 49ers got career nights out of a number of players, as setter Ashley Lee was two kills short of a second career triple-double, with 8 kills, 55 assists and 11 digs, while Lauren Minkel set a career high with 27 digs and Caitlin Ledoux compiled her eighth double-double of the season with 15 kills and 14 digs.
Scouting TCU
TCU's matches with LBSU and UCI should be two of the most exciting of the tournament. The Horned Frogs, led by former 49er Prentice (Perkins) Lewis, stand in second place in the Mountain West and enter with an overall record of 24-6. TCU is led by Kourtney Edwards who averages over .325 kills per set, but has six players with more than 100 kills, including setter Megan Munce.
Scouting UNLV
UNLV has had a very down year, two years removed from a spot in the Top 25 and a first-round date with the 49ers in the NCAA Tournament at the Galen Center in Los Angeles. The Rebels enter the weekend with an 8-17 overall record and had only three wins out of conference, over Valparaiso, Seattle and Nevada. Cursty Jackson leads the team with 298 kills and is hitting .261 on the year.
Scouting LMU
LMU started the year with a strong non-conference showing, going 9-5 but faltered in the WCC with a 3-11 overall record in league play, with all three wins coming at home. The Lions are led by Alaina Bergsma, who has 416 kills on the year and averages 4.47 kills per set, but is only hitting .217 on 1092 total attempts. Becky Stehling is the only player to play all sets for LMU, and averages 2.14 kills per set and is the team's best blocker, with 70 total blocks on the season.
Scouting Utah
After starting the season 4-0, five losses over the next seven games for the Utes dropped Utah out of the polls, but Utah proves to still be a dangerous team. Karolin Bartkowiak leads the way for Utah, averaging 3.03 kills per set, but Chelsey Sandberg, Cinthia Silva and Sarah Hibbert all average at least two kills per set.
Long Beach State vs. the tournament field
Long Beach State holds a 1-0 record over TCU, winning in three the last time the Horned Frogs came to the Thanksgiving classic 2003. The 49ers have a 7-2 overall record against UNLV, with both losses coming during the PCAA era. The 49ers have one the three more recent appearances, the last coming in an exciting five-set win in the first round of the 2007 NCAA Tournament. Long Beach State leads the series with crosstown opponent LMU 14-3, and has won three straight, but surprisingly have not played the Lions since meeting in the NCAA Tournament in 1997. Against Utah, the 49ers have a 10-2 record, and have won five straight against the Utes, with the latest win again coming in the NCAA Tournament a 3-0 win in 2004.
Best In The Big West
Naomi Washington, Caitlin Ledoux and Ashley Lee all earned first-team All-Big West as the 49ers had five players honored in the annual awards. Washington and Ledoux each garnered a second first-team selection, while Lee received her first after being named to the All-Freshman team as an outside hitter in 2007. Brittney Herzog, one year removed from a first-team selection, again made the team as an honorable mention selection, and Jocelyn Neely was named to the All-Freshman team. The 49ers led the league with five individual players honored, and tied with UC Davis with four players receiving either first-team or honorable mention honors.
Quality Quartet
The coaching staff announced the signing of four players to a letter of intent for the 2010 season. Delainey Aigner-Swesey, Haleigh Hampton, Alma Serna and Ashley Vazquez will all be coming to The Beach next season. The 6-7 Hampton and 6-3 Serna are both "Senior Aces" as listed by Prep Volleyball, while Ashley Vazquez is the starting setter for the Puerto Rico junior national team, and earned MVP awards at the JVDA championships last year. Aigner-Swesey rounds out the list, a 6-1 outside hitter coming from Serrano High School, the same high school as current 49er Caitlin Ledoux and is regarded as a similar player.
This and That
Long Beach State's RPI fell to 36th this past week, but still remains the highest in the Big West ... The 49ers still have two matches remaining against Top 100 opponents in TCU and Utah ... Sophomore libero Lauren Minkel set a career-high with 27 digs against UC Irvine ... that puts her season total at 405, the No. 8 single-season total with at least five more matches to play ... senior Naomi Washington needs 63 kills over the rest of the season to reach 1,000 and become the 15th 49er to reach the milestone.
