With just two Big West Conference matches left to play, the second-place Long Beach State women’s volleyball team is not getting caught up in a “what-if” game.
Cal State Fullerton (24-5, 12-2 Big West) has a one-game lead in the conference standings and — barring a collapse on the road against UC Irvine and Cal State Northridge — should capture its first Big West title in school history. LBSU (21-6, 11-3 Big West) owns the head-to-head tiebreaker but would need the Titans to lose at least one match to win a third consecutive conference title.
“You can only control what you’re playing, we can’t control what Fullerton’s doing,” LBSU junior outside hitter Caitlin Ledoux said.
Instead, the 49ers are lined up for what appears to be a 24th consecutive NCAA tournament appearance via an at-large selection. The team’s Ratings Percentage Index, which ranks the nation’s teams based on wins, losses and strength of schedule, sits at No. 25 with the help of a road victory over Colorado State (No. 21).
But, before the ‘Niners shift their focus to a possible postseason appearance, Ledoux said team needs to clean up its performance toward the end of matches.
“We talked a lot about finishing matches,” Ledoux said. “And I think it’s more than just finishing matches, it’s finishing our season.
“If we don’t lose another game for the rest of the season, we’ll be [11 for 11] for our last [11] matches.”
LBSU will face UCI (7-20, 3-11 Big West) on Thursday and CSUN (12-18, 4-10 Big West) on Friday. Both road matches are scheduled for 7 p.m.
The 49ers will then close the regular season by hosting the Mizuno Thanksgiving tournament Nov. 26 and 27. The Beach will face nonconference opponents Notre Dame, Akron and Seattle.
49ers add 5 for 2011
Head coach Brian Gimmillaro announced last Friday that five players have signed a letter of intent for the 2011 season.
Kitan Ajanaku (6-2 middle blocker), Tori Jobe (5-11 setter), Erin Juley (5-10 setter), Bre Mackie (6-3 outside hitter) and Chisom Okpala (6-2 middle blocker) make up the recruiting class.
“I believe this will be considered as a top recruiting class nationally,” Gimmillaro said in a release.
Okpala leads the class as the nation’s 39th–ranked recruit by Prep Volleyball.
Conference lifts expansion ban
The Big West Board of Directors voted Tuesday to lift a membership moratorium that had been in place since July 2005. The action allows the Big West to assess the addition of possible new schools to the nine-team conference.
“This action by the Board of Directors positions the Big West Conference in this time of dynamic conference realignment to assess expansion if presented with candidates that fit the current membership’s profile and share their intercollegiate athletic values and goals,” Big West commissioner Dennis Farrell said in a release. “It is important to note that there is no commitment or time table established for expanding beyond the current membership of the Big West.”
Hawaii is among the schools that have expressed interest in joining the Big West.
In early October, the Daily 49er reported that Gimmillaro said, “I think that the Big West would benefit from Hawaii, and Hawaii would benefit from the Big West.”
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