LBSU
picked to win
By Ben Dimapindan
On-line Forty-Niner
The
season-long journey culminated in a trip
to the NCAA National Championship at Cox
Arena, and included a 33-game win streak
along the way for the 2001 Long Beach State
women’s volleyball team.
 Keeping
last season’s impressive 33-1 run in mind,
the coaches around the Big West Conference
reached a consensus, selecting the 49ers
to claim the conference crown, but their
majority decision, taken in perspective,
“on paper, makes no sense,” according to
Coach Brian Gimmillaro.
“I’m very honored that they [chose us].
It’s because of reputation they voted us
there,” Gimmillaro said. “We’ve lost seven
of our top eight hitters since last year,
only five hitters start, on paper, it doesn’t
make any sense. There isn’t another program
in the country that would be rated [as highly
as us] losing seven of their top eight.”
However, although the squad will feature
new faces on the court, the focus, the determination
and the goals for the 2002 campaign have
gone unaltered.
“Our outlook on the season is still the
same — to be successful every time we take
the court,” Gimmillaro said. “We plan on
winning them all. The attitude we have is
still to win every match we play in.”
The winning mentality that has become emblematic
of LBSU volleyball has been widely recognized
by coaches and volleyball scouts across
the nation as well.
The USA Today/American Volleyball Coaches
Association preseason poll ranked the 49ers
fifth, while Volleyball Magazine ranked
the team seventh in its preseason poll.
In addition, this new team brings with it
a new chemistry that the LBSU coaches are
anxious to watch compete on the floor of
The Pyramid.
“This team is new with new people, but it’s
slowly developing,” Gimmillaro said. “We
lost so many players, but I’m excited to
see this team play.”
With the development of the team and the
arsenal of youthful talent, Gimmillaro only
hopes that the crowds will converge at The
Pyramid as lively and bountifully for the
fresh new faces as they always have for
past 49er squads.
“We’ve never had this many new people before,
they need the support of the community and
the school,” Gimmillaro said. “There are
310 Division I teams, and we’ve believed
that for 13 years overall, we’ve been the
No. 1 program in the country. When you’ve
got a program that takes great pride in
representing the community and school, students
need to come out and support them.”
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