49ers finish regular season with Senior Night, Thanksgiving Classic

11/24/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball

Nov. 24, 2010

Complete Volleyball Release in PDF Format

Long Beach, Calif. -

THIS WEEK:
Notre Dame Fighting Irish (18-12, 10-4 BIG EAST) at
Long Beach State 49ers (22-7, 12-4 Big West)
Date: Friday, November 26
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Walter Pyramid

Akron Zips (15-14, 7-9 MAC) at
Long Beach State 49ers (22-7, 12-4 Big West)
Date: Saturday, November 27
Time: 11 a.m.
Location: Walter Pyramid

Seattle Redhawks (15-12, Independent) at
Long Beach State 49ers (22-7, 12-4 Big West)
Date: Saturday, November 27
Time: 2 p.m.
Location: Walter Pyramid

Starting Out
Long Beach State concludes the 2010 regular season this week by hosting four matches in the Walter Pyramid, with the 49ers playing in three of them. First the 49ers will host a neutral-site match between Seattle and Akron at 5 p.m. on Friday, November 26. Following the conclusion of that match, the 49ers will host Notre Dame at approximately 7 p.m. The 49ers will also honor their three seniors with a ceremony prior to that match. Then on Saturday, the 49ers will play a double-header, taking on Akron followed by Seattle at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Live stats for the Seattle/Akron game will be available through www.longbeachstate.com, as will live audio and video for all Long Beach State matches throughout the weekend.

Senior Salute
Long Beach State bids farewell to three seniors in 2010, with Taylor Cook, Laura Schuck and Ashley Lee departing following the season. Cook has spent two seasons with the 49ers, transferring from Golden West CC, and has been valuable as a reserve, most recently in the team's last match against CS Northridge. Laura Schuck, a local player from Wilson High School, played in one match as a freshman but worked her way into the starting lineup over the last two seasons, and has made 452 digs over four seasons as a defensive specialist. Finally, Ashley Lee has been one of the finest all-around players in Long Beach State history. A four-year starter, Lee has played as an outside hitter and a defensive specialist, before transitioning to the setter position, where she has been a first-team All-Big West selection over the last two years. Over her career, she joins Misty May, Sheri Sanders and Nicole Vargas as the only 49er setters ever to have over 2,000 assists and 1,000 digs in their career.

700 ... That's A Big Number
With Long Beach State's 25-19, 25-17, 25-18 win at UC Irvine last week, the 49ers picked up win 22 on the year and head coach Brian Gimmillaro reached very exclusive club, becoming just the eighth active coach to record 700 Division I wins and just the 10th coach ever to reach the mark solely with Division I victories. Gimmillaro was named the 1998 National Coach of the Year and has led the 49ers to three national championships. Gimmillaro ranks 17th in all-time victories, and is No. 8 in career winning percentage in Division I.

Conference Honors
Long Beach State had five players honored by the Big West when the conference announced All-Big West awards for the 2010 season. Caitlin Ledoux, Haleigh Hampton and Ashley Lee were all chosen for the first-team, with Ledoux picking up the honor for the third time and Ashley Lee for the second. Sophomore Janisa Johnson was selected as an honorable mention, and both Hampton and Delainey Aigner-Swesey each were picked for the All-Freshman team.

Scouting Notre Dame
Notre Dame, after finishing fifth in the Big East, needs a win against the 49ers just as badly as Long Beach State needs a win as both try to boost their team's chances to reach the NCAA Tournament. Andrea McHugh is the top offensive threat for Notre Dame, averaging 3.48 kills per set, while middle blocker Kellie Sciacca leads the team in hitting and blocking at .341 and 1.06 blocks per set respectively.

Long Beach State vs. the Fighting Irish
Long Beach State has a 5-1 lead in the all-time series with Notre Dame, with the most recent meeting coming two years ago in a mid-season non-conference match in the Walter Pyramid, where senior Quincy Verdin set a career high with 21 kills and a freshman Caitlin Ledoux added 12 as the 49ers won in four sets.

Scouting Akron
Akron comes to Long Beach one game over .500 at 15-14, with a 10-game winning streak in the middle of the season accounting for much of its wins, but the Zips have lost 10 of their last 12. Courtney Jarvis leads the team at 2.98 kills per set, while Tina Dimitrijevs is hitting .367 with 2.49 assists per set.

Long Beach State vs. the Zips
This is the first meeting between the 49ers and Zips.

Scouting Seattle
The independent Seattle Redhawks have put together a very respectable season, entering the week at 17-12, with their most impressive result coming in a loss in five sets at No. 19 Oregon. The Redhawks have played Cal State Bakersfield for their last four matches, winning all four against a depleted Roadrunner squad, and will be ready for a different opponent. Cristin Richards leads the team with 490 kills on the season, averaging 4.30 per set and hitting .239 on the year.

Long Beach State vs. the Redhawks
This is the first meeting between the 49ers and Redhawks.

Block Party
Two players averaging over a block per set have helped pace the 49ers to one of their best blocking rates in years, and the tops in the Big West this season. Long Beach State averages 2.94 blocks per set and ranks eighth nationally, over a half-block better than the second-place team in the Big West. Haleigh Hampton leads the conference individually with 1.58 blocks per set, while Michelle Osunbor is fourth with 1.12 per set. Hampton's totals rank third nationally, and the pair is even better in conference play, where Long Beach State's middles come in at 1.68 and 1.20 blocks per set respectively.

Record Watch
Setter Ashley Lee, who started the year 10th on the career assists list at Long Beach State passed both Heather Hofmans and Joy McKienzie for eighth place. She just hit another milestone, passing 2,000 assists and has now made 2,286 over her career. In single-season notes, Haleigh Hampton's 34 solo blocks are ninth-most in school history, and her 134 block assists are fifth-most in one season as a true freshman. Lauren Minkel has also hit the top 10 in one season for the second time with 435 digs after reaching 485 digs last season, the fourth-most in Long Beach State history.

Digging It
In additional milestones from earlier this season, both Ashley Lee and Lauren Minkel made their 1,000th career dig. Lee reached the mark one match sooner, hitting it against UC Irvine while Minkel, the team's starting libero, got to 1,000 digs one match later against UC Riverside. The pair has quickly moved up the career lists, and Minkel now sits in sixth place with 1,152 career digs, while Lee is seventh with 1,108 digs in her career.