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Long Beach State University Athletics
Long Beach State University
California
No. 10 Beach Volleyball Opens The Season Against Cal And Pepperdine
2/18/2025 10:51:00 AM | Women's Beach Volleyball
The Beach will play their first games of the season in Malibu, Calif. this Saturday.
LONG BEACH, Calif. - Long Beach State will head to Malibu to face No. 9 Cal and the hosts Pepperdine. The team will face Cal at noon and Pepperdine shortly after at 2 p.m.Â
Long Beach is ranked No. 10 coming into the 2025 season, continuing an incredible streak that has seen the Beach ranked every week in the history of the AVCA rankings. The two other Big West schools that made the rankings were Cal Poly at No. 4 and Hawai'i who ranked 12th in the poll.  Â
The preseason rankings can be found at https://www.avca.org/polls-awards Â
This year's roster brings back most of the team that has been to back-to-back NCAA tournaments, along with some new additions. The team is led by juniors Malia Gementera and Taylor Hagenah, who garnered multiple accolades after a record-breaking season. Both players were named First Team All-American as well as being named 2024 All Big West First Team and 2024 AVCA Top Flight Award recipients. They hold the program record for most pairs wins with 62 wins and counting. Other returners are Julia Westby and Savannah Standage, who were both named to the 2024 All Big West First Team and 2024 AVCA Top Flight Award recipients for their efforts at the second flight.  Â
The newcomers are headlined by freshman Victoria Henkel who was named to the AVCA Junior All American First Team. The Beach also welcomes another player who is coming off of an impressive freshman season. Brooke Birch, a transfer from Grand Canyon, was named to CCSA All-Freshman team after picking up two wins over ranked teams.  Â
Live stats for the games can be found here:Â Â Â
