The Long Beach State women’s volleyball team won its matches this weekend against UC Davis and UC Irvine, giving head coach Brian Gimmillaro his 800th and 801st career wins at LBSU.
“If you stick around long enough you’ll get 800,” Gimmillaro said. “We’ve won 80 percent of our matches and maintaining it for 31 years is the hard part. That’s what I’m most proud of. But I’m certainly lucky enough to be surrounded by the right people.”
Gimmillaro said the special part about his accomplishment is that it was all done as a 49er.
“Some of the other people [on the list of 800 wins] didn’t do it at the same school,” Gimmillaro said. “You can be successful and celebrated as a coach without having to leave Long Beach. [Plus] it didn’t have the reputation athletically that some of the football schools do, so I’m very proud of that.”
Gimmillaro holds the record for most wins by a head coach in LBSU history. He joined the elite group of coaches who hold 800 or more wins on Friday night after beating UC Davis 3-0, but he treated it as just another game.
Against the Aggies (5-11, 0-2), LBSU made little mistakes and held Davis to a .010 hitting percentage as Gimmillaro paced up and down to sidelines, shouting and grabbing the referees’ attention like usual.
After the game ended, assistant coach Erika Dillard gave Gimmillaro a congratulatory hug, then the video board and the announcer let everyone in the Walter Pyramid know what the 31st-year head coach had accomplished.
Immediately after getting his 800th win, Gimmillaro reminisced about his career.
“I’m really fortunate to be around women athletes,” Gimmillaro said. “I’ve learned so much from so many different wonderful people. I mean it was pretty exciting tonight, there were freshmen that thought they’d never get to play, and they did. Watching [young people] do these things is a real spectacle that I don’t think you could get in many other jobs.”
LBSU took the momentum from the historic night and defeated UC Irvine for Gimmillaro’s win 801 in four sets on Saturday. The matchup with Irvine (6-8, 0-2) proved more difficult as the Anteaters traded points with LBSU, but ultimately fell 3-1.
“We need to work on being a better team,” UCI head coach Ashlie Hain said. “We have freshmen out there and some inexperienced players who haven’t had that pressure before. We have to work to limit runs and find a way to side out more efficiently.”
Big West Offensive Player of the Week Nele Barber owned the court both nights with 12 kills on Friday and 20 kills on Saturday. Despite her breakout year, the outside hitter was shocked about the award.
“I did not see [it] coming,” Barber said. “Such awards are reassuring in that they show that I’m good at what I’m doing.”
Senior middle blocker Hayley Benson broke out with 16 kills against the Anteaters; she’d been averaging 6.8 kills per game before the match.
“Blocking tonight is what put me in rhythm,” Benson said. “Janelle [Hudson] and I were synced well tonight. I felt great and everything worked together.”
Gimmillaro will look for wins 802 and 803 as LBSU travels to San Luis Obispo to play Cal Poly on Friday and to Santa Barbara for a matchup with the Gauchos on Saturday.