Long Beach State athletic director Vic Cegles announced the hiring of Joey Cerulle as the new women’s golf head coach on Monday. Cerulle spent the past year as an assistant for the men’s and women’s programs at California Baptist. He was selected to replace Sue Ewart, who stepped down earlier this year after 13 seasons at the helm. This past season, Cerulle helped guide both the men’s and women’s teams at Cal Baptist to NAIA Top 25 rankings, with the women peaking at No. 2 to reach the highest ranking in school history. He also was the head coach of NAIA Top 25 men’s and women’s programs at Concordia from 2005-08. The Corona native was also a golf instructor with the Long Beach Junior Golf Association from 1998-2003.
The 49ers were picked to finish second in the Big West Conference this season after collecting two first-place votes and 67 total points in the 2009 Preseason Coaches’ Poll. UC Santa Barbara is the favorite to win the nine-team conference, netting five first-place tallies for 75 points overall. The Gauchos defeated the ‘Niners in penalty kicks last season to earn the Big West’s NCAA automatic bid, while LBSU grabbed an at-large spot to its first-ever NCAA appearance. Cal Poly (65) and Pacific (53) tallied one first-place vote apiece and were selected to finish third and fourth, respectively. The Beach, which has won the last three Big West regular season titles, opens its 2009 campaign at home against Fresno State on Sunday, Aug. 23 at 3 p.m.
The Long Beach State women’s tennis team racked up academic awards in team and individual categories, as announced by the International Tennis Association on Tuesday. The 49ers earned their sixth team award, and fifth in a row, joining three other Big West programs for the honor. To earn an ITA team award, a team must have a combined 3.2 grade point average during the academic year. Six players — Hannah Grady, Jessica Weeks, Julie Luzar, Anais Dallara and Deborah Armstrong — along with fall competitor Stephanie Jeanes, earned ITA individual accolades for accumulating a grade point average of 3.5 or better during the year.