Women's Volleyball begins season Friday, hosts five-team tournament

8/23/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball

Aug. 23, 2010

Long Beach, Calif. -

Complete Women's Volleyball Release in PDF Format

Starting Out
Long Beach State jumps right into the fray with the Long Beach State Baden Classic to open the season. The 49ers play four matches themselves, and also host four additional matches over Friday and Saturday August 27-28. The 49ers open their season at 1:30 on Friday, when the 49ers play the Rutgers Scarlet Knights for the first time since 2005. The Beach then plays UNLV and Sacred Heart before closing out the tournament with their first tilt against a ranked opponent, hosting No. 25 Saint Mary's in the eighth and final match.

Chat With Coach
Fans looking to get an inside look at the upcoming weekend and the 2010 season are welcome to attend Head Coach Brian Gimmillaro's Coach's Chat at Tantalum on Thursday, August 26. The event is free and open to the public, where Coach Gimmillaro will go into depth into the expectations, excitement and challanges facing the 2010 Long Beach State women's volleyball team. The event will begin at 5:30 p.m.

Lee and Ledoux
Long Beach State will get a boost from two key returners in the 2010 season, as the 49ers return two first-team All-Big West selections in senior setter Ashley Lee and junior outside hitter Caitlin Ledoux. Lee, after earning All-Freshman honors in her first season with the 49ers as an outside hitter, transitioned to setter as a junior and guided The Beach to its second straight Big West title on the way to league honors. Ledoux, the 2008 Big West Freshman of the Year was once again a huge part of the 49er offense, earning her second first-team honor as well as a All-Region nod while averaging 3.58 kills per set and totalling 415 kills on the year. Both are dangerous in every position on the floor, coming 1-2 on the team in aces in 2009 and each making over 300 digs, just behind the team's libero for the team lead.

Coming Back
Along with Ledoux and Lee, Long Beach State brings back three other players who had more than ten starts as well as starting libero Lauren Minkel. Outside hitter Jocelyn Neely is back for her sophomore season, one year after taking Big West All-Freshman honors, and Michelle Osunbor brings her team-high 117 total blocks back to the middle blocker position in her junior year. Senior Laura Schuck also returns as a back-row and serving specialist after making 173 digs and 16 aces the previous season. Six other letterwinners return, including sophomore Libby Fontanilla, who had 177 digs while playing in all but one match.

Coming In
In addition to the letterwinners that are returning, the 49ers have five freshman that make up the No. 12 recruting class in the nation according to PrepVolleyball. The 49ers have a new pair of middle blockers in 6-7 Haleigh Hampton and 6-1 Kiri Hirini, the setter of the future in 6-1 Ashley Vazquez, another talented outside hitter in 6-1 Delainey Aigner-Swesey and round out the group with 5-11 defensive specialist Chelsea Cabrajac.

Scouting The Baden Classic
Long Beach State's opponents in the Baden Classic are a study in contrasts. Rutgers is in the second year of a rebuilding project under head coach CJ Weneke, going 9-16 last season, while UNLV, one year removed from facing the 49ers in the NCAA first round, struggled to an 8-19 record and lost four starters from that team. On the other side, Sacred Heart posted a 23-11 record last year out of the Northeast conference, and brings back a total of six starters. Long Beach State's final opponent in the tournament, St. Mary's, just edged the 49ers for a spot in the Top 25 and will be an important early match for both teams.

Against The Tournament Field
Long Beach State has a 1-0 record against Rutgers, defeating the Scarlet Knights 3-1 during the 2005 season in, ironically enough, a tournament hosted by 2010 Baden Classic participant UNLV. The Rebels and the 49ers have the longest history, with Long Beach State holding an 8-2 series lead, which includes a 5-0 mark at home against the Rebels, including a 3-1 victory last season which saw the most action for a number of Long Beach State's underclassman. It is the first meeting between Sacred Heart and Long Beach State, and the 49ers have an unblemished 5-0 mark against Saint Mary's, dating back to a pair of matches back in 2006. In the first match, the 49ers outlasted the Gaels in five sets on a neutral floor, before winning in three sets five days later.

Around The League
With back-to-back Big West conference championships under their belt, the 49ers were again picked to take the league championship, receiving seven first place votes in the coaches poll released by the conference office. UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara each received a single first place vote and held on to the next two spots, while a dangerous Cal State Fullerton team took the next spot. A young Cal Poly team tied with the surprising UC Davis squad for fifth, while Pacific, CS Northridge and UC Riverside rounded out the projected order of finish.

Poll Position
Long Beach State starts the season just outside of the Top 25, receiving 132 votes, the top team not to be included in the Top 25. However, the 49ers will get a chance to impress voters right off the bat, playing No. 25 Saint Mary's during the team's first weekend of action. The 49ers play four teams ranked in the preseason poll, and lead a trio of Big West squads who received votes in the initial tally. Also receiving votes was an opponent coming to the Walter Pyramid at the end of the year for the Thanksgiving tournament in Notre Dame.

Defense! Defense!
Long Beach State dug their way to success last season, setting a number of records and putting in place a foundation for a number of higher marks. The 49ers had six players make 100 or more digs on the year, and had three players with over 300 in libero Lauren Minkel, who had the fourth-most in school history with 485, Ashley Lee's 329 and Caitlin Ledoux's 318. Lee now has 914 in her career, and could become the tenth 49er to make 1,000 digs in her career in 2010, as could Minkel, who after two seasons has 717 digs and returns for another turn as the libero for The Beach.

Record Watch
Selected as an Honorable Mention All-America in 2009 after being named the Big West Freshman of the Year in 2008, Caitlin Ledoux is primed for another big season. After two years, Ledoux has 804 career kills, and could reasonbly become the 16th 49er to reach 1,000 career kills this season, and pass a number of great 49ers on that list on the way to the career Top-10. Following one season at setter after two on the right side, Ashley Lee ranks 10th in career assists at Long Beach State with 1,404, and should move up that chart quickly as well. Additionally, both Lee and Lauren Minkel should reach the career top 10 in digs during the 2010 sason.

23 And Counting
Long Beach State punched their ticket for the NCAA Tournament with a 3-2 win over UC Irvine on Nov. 21, 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.

This and That
Delainey Aigner-Swesey and Caitlin Ledoux played together at Serrano High School ... that gives the 49ers two groups of players that were teammates in high school ... Megan Johnson, Jessica Thomas and Gabby Pulig all come from Lakewood High School in Lakewood ... 22 more wins in 2010 will give Brian Gimmillaro 700 in his career ... Only seven active coaches have reached 700 wins, and only 13 have ever reached that distinction ... also on pace to reach that mark next year are Karen Chisum (Texas State, 697) and Mary Wise (Florida, 689), both just ahead of Gimmillaro's 678 career victories.