A busy week in Long Beach State athletics which saw men’s and women’s basketball start their regular season and various other fall sports come towards the end.
Men’s Basketball
Men’s basketball opened their regular season on the road as they traveled to face the University of Idaho on Wednesday night.
The game was a tough season opener for The Beach as they would prevail to win the game in overtime 95-89.
Joel Murray led the team with 28 points. Joe Hampton, Colin Slater, and Jordan Roberts all chipped in as well with 16 points each.
The Beach will face a tough test in their next game as they face a talented UCLA team who is currently ranked #2 in the nation at the Pauley Pavilion on Monday November 15.
Women’s Basketball
Already 2-0 on the season, the women’s basketball team faced Biola University on Tuesday, November 9th, and was also on the road in Idaho to face Boise State on Saturday, November 13.
The game against Biola was their home opener in which they won 80-61 and the leading scorer for the team was Jasmine Hardy with 12 points.
On Saturday it was a blowout win against Boise State where The Beach won 61-38 as they were led by Justina King with 16 points, giving her 1000 career points in the process.
The Beach will be back in action on Thursday November 18 at the Walter Pyramid against Seattle University.
Men’s Water Polo
Men’s water polo finished their impressive regular season play with wins over Loyola Marymount and UC Irvine.
On Thursday they faced Loyola Marymount at home in a back and forth thriller, where the beach came out on top with a score of 13-12.
With 2:05 left in the fourth quarter, Matt Morris scored Long Beach State’s go-ahead goal to give the Beach the 13-12 victory. Morris led the team with four goals.
Garett Zaan scored five goals as the Beach defeated No. 12 UC Irvine, 12-5 Saturday afternoon at Ken Lindgren Aquatics Center.
This gave the Beach an undefeated conference record after clinching the regular season title last week.
The Beach will prepare for the GCC tournament next week which will be held at UC Irvine in which they are the No.1 seed in the tournament.
They will face the winner of San Jose State and Pepperdine on Saturday.
Women’s Volleyball
Volleyball was in action in back-to-back conference games against Cal State Northridge and UC Santa Barbara.
In the Friday matchup upLong Beach State was led by three players tallying double-digit digs, as they got the victory over CSUN 3-1.
On Saturday the Beach scored an upset victory over the conference leading Gauchos which they won 3-1 one as well.
Kashuana Williams led the team with 11 kills.
Long Beach State will be back in action on Friday, Nov. 19 at UC San Diego
Cross Country
The Cross Country teams finished up their season this weekend as they competed in the NCAA West Regionals at the Haggin Oaks Golf Course in Sacramento, California.
The women finished 24th out of 35 teams with 661 total points while the men finished 23rd of 29 with 611 points.
It was the best finish for the women since 2012 when they finished 18th.
Ryley Fick led the way for the Beach women finishing 85th with a time of 21:36.3 and for the men Michael Phillips paced the Beach, crossing the line in 85th with a time of 31:41.4.
Men’s Golf
The Long Beach State men’s golf team wrapped up the fall season at the St, Mary’s Invitational which was played at Poppy Hills Golf Club in Pebble Beach, Calif.
They finished tied for 15th place out of 19 teams.
Freshman Ian Gilligan led the team with a top-20 finish after shooting 1-under par over three rounds.
Long Beach State will open the spring season on Thursday, Feb. 17 at the John Burns Intercollegiate in Lihue, Hawaii.
Beach Volleyball
Long Beach State Women’s Beach Volleyball are competing in a preseason event this weekend titled the SoCal Challenge in Manhattan Beach, California.
Other teams in the tournament include USC, UCLA, Hawaii, Pepperdine, University of Arizona, Cal Poly SLO, and Grand Canyon University.
Women’s Tennis
Long Beach State Women’s Tennis were set to compete in the Watanabe Classic in Las Vegas which runs from Friday through Sunday to conclude their fall tournament season.
The Beach will have six players competing this weekend.
Sheena Masuda and Nikola Homolkova will team up in doubles play, Zara Lennon and Zuzanna Szczepanska will also take part in the quarterfinal round, and Finally, Claire Le Du and Andreea Ciornei will compete in flight two in their quarterfinal round.