LBSU offers student body free admission to
games
If you're a student and cash is limited,
don't panic.
Whether you are into volleyball, soccer
or water polo, or all of the above -- Long Beach State has something to
offer.
Eric Boyum
Kicking off the weekend’s events is the
much-anticipated debut of the men's water polo team led by new head coach
Ricardo Azevedo.
The season opener against Loyola Marymount
is at 3 p.m. today at the Campus Pool.
The coach that brings five California
Interscholastic Federation championships from Woodrow Wilson High School
to Long Beach State is ready to prove that he can lift the 49ers from the
depths of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
"I'm just starting this and I welcome
the challenge," Azevedo said. "We’ve been going eight hours a day."
Azevedo has only lost three games in the
last four years as a head water polo coach, which leaves one to believe
his team should give 100 percent when the ball hits the water.
Azevedo would prefer that all his games
be played at the Campus Pool instead of the Belmont Plaza Pool.
The thinking here is that he wants to
provide his team with an environment similar to what he experienced during
his run to the CIF championships at Wilson High.
Considering the cost of the event (which
is free for students with their student identification cards), it should
be worth the time and the soaked shirt for those in the front row.
The LBSU women’s soccer team is winless
in three games this season. Considering the team is only in its second
year of Division I play, this is normal.
However, head coach Julie Cochran won’t
admit this, and she was not happy with the effort from most of her team
members against Cal State Northridge last week.
One member she has been pleased with is
redshirt-freshman goalie Jihan Elgazzar. Throw out the season
opener against the University of San Diego, in which she gave up seven
goals, and Elgazzar has allowed only three goals in her last two starts.
This has prompted Cochran to declare Elgazzar
as the team’s starting goalie.
However, keep tuned: Goaltender Hannah
Cochrun had a cast removed from her wrist this week, and if the team remains
winless, a move in goal may spark the team -- especially if Elgazzar has
a poor outing as she did against the Univerisity of San Diego.
But Cochran makes no bones about it: If
Elgazzar continues to play the way she has, the job is hers to keep.
President Robert Maxson is one person on
the record having predicted the LBSU women’s volleyball team to finish
higher than they are currently ranked. The Beach moved up one spot in the
latest poll this week to No. 4 in the nation.
The defending national champion women’s
volleyball team is three games away from tying the all-time consecutive
win record of 44 set by Penn State -- not Stanford.
Florida holds the all-time record for
consecutive home wins at 60 and Stanford is in the record books with 50
consecutive wins at home.
The 49ers currently have 48 consecutive
wins at home.
The bet here is that the 49ers will move
one more win closer to breaking both of these marks by routing unranked
Cal State Northridge on Friday.
If you can’t make it to The Pyramid for
the game against the Matadors, the next chance you can see the at home
49ers will be in the Big West Conference season opener against Utah State
Sept. 23.
If LBSU can survive road trips to No.
3 Hawaii and No. 23 Colorado next week, a victory over Utah State would
give LBSU the all-time consecutive win record.
Eric Boyum is the sports editor of
the Daily Forty-Niner. |
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