By Men’s Basketball
Senior guard Colin Slater hides behind freshman forward Aboubacar Traore in an effort to scan the court for any possible openings at the Pyramid Tuesday night. Photo credit: Jorge Villa
This past week The Beach continued their eight-game win streak and extended it to 10 after defeating Cal State Fullerton on Tuesday night and Hawaii on Thursday night.
Long Beach defeated CSUF on Feb. 8 at The Walter Pyramid. The game between LBSU and CSUF was a battle for first in The Big West but after being down early in the first half 33-28, The Beach overcame the deficit early on as they took advantage of mistakes caused by Fullerton.
Senior Guard Colin Slater led The Beach in scoring as he finished the night with 19 points scored. The Beach won the game with a final score of 71-61. The victory marked a milestone in Dan Monson’s, the head coach, career as he recorded his 400th career victory as a head coach.
On Thursday night, The Beach defeated Hawaii with a final score of 73-66. The Beach were led by freshman Aboubacar Traore as he scored a total of 18 points and 11 rebounds for The Beach.
Women’s Basketball
Women’s basketball finished this week 1-1 as they beat Cal State Fullerton 63-53. However, The Beach lost to Hawaii on Thursday night with a final score of 72-64.
Against CSUF, junior guard/forward Jasmine Hardy led Long Beach as she scored 22 points followed by 6 three-point shots.
On Thursday, The Beach fell short, followed by a Double-Double by Senior Forward Maddi Utti. Utti finished the night with 25 points scored followed by 12 rebounds total.
Women’s Water Polo
Women’s water polo competed over the weekend at the Triton Invite as The Beach went 1-3 with a victory over UC Santa Barbara followed by three losses to No. 1 USC, No. 7 UC Irvine, and No. 12 UC San Diego.
In the match against Santa Barbara, Lena Kotanchyan scored a season-high of five goals while Freshman goalie Chelsea Oliver picked up her first career win.
The Beach will return to action this week as they head up to Central California for the Fresno Invite.
Women’s Tennis
LBSU’s women’s tennis team traveled to San Diego this week, where the team lost 4-0 to San Diego State and 7-0 to The University of San Diego.
Followed by this week’s matchup, Head Coach Jenny Hilt Costello aims to get the team to play better as the season goes on.
“We know we can play better and will work towards that tomorrow,” Costello said.
Softball
LBSU’s softball team began their season this week at the Puerto Vallarta College Challenge this weekend as the team went 2-3.
The Beach lost their opening games Friday with a loss to Memphis 4-3 and a loss to Washington 8-3.
LBSU went 1-1 with a victory over Memphis 8-5 on Saturday and a loss to Arkansas 10-0.
On Sunday, The Beach found themselves in the win column once again as the team defeated Lamar University 5-2.
Junior pitcher Samantha Fowler received the win on Sunday, her first of the year. Joining her in the stat column was redshirt freshman Shelby Frutoz who earned her first career save.
Men’s Volleyball
Setter, Aidan Knipe, had 32 assists Friday night Photo credit: Matthew Brown
Men’s Volleyball was in action at The Walter Pyramid on Friday night as The Beach, who are ranked No.1 in the nation, took on No. 2 ranked cross-country opponent UCLA.
The Beach beat UCLA 3-0 [25-22, 25-23, 25-13].
LBSU led in scoring by sophomore outside hitter Clarke Godbold as he would go on to finish the night with 17 kills. The Beach also led in digs by sophomore libero Mason Briggs with a total of 10 digs.
“As the match goes, those were two really good first sets, and then the third set… everything kind of went our way,” head coach Alan Knipe said after Friday’s victory over UCLA.
