MONDAY, MAY 10, 1999

Volleyballers will be back

Sports are one of the times where you will see grown men cry.

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Greg Hanson

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As I was walking to my car after the Long Beach State men's volleyball team's victory over Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne at UCLA on Thursday night, I saw IPFW outside hitter Scott Lane weep in the arms of a friend.

I can't say I felt sorry for him, since I go to Long Beach State and he doesn't, but it was still kind of sad. It's too bad someone has to lose in important sporting events.

Fortunately I didn't witness the same thing from any of the 49er players after their loss to Brigham Young in the NCAA championship match on Saturday night.

This is why: All the best college volleyball teams in the nation will lose its best senior players. Tournament MVP Ossie Antonetti and Ryan Miller, BYU's best players, are seniors. This was their last collegiate volleyball match.

The 49ers' starting lineup had no seniors in it. They will be back next year and own every college volleyball team in the nation.

The players are young and their defense is incredible. Some of the guys would dig up spikes that would break some people's noses if they stood in front of them.

This was only the start of what will be the volleyball team to beat in the next couple of years.

It's too bad there were 8,026 fans in Pauley Pavilion and the chant of "Long Beach State" was completely drowned out by the chant of "BYU." More BYU fans came to the match than Long Beach State fans. BYU is in Utah. LBSU is 30 minutes from Pauley Pavilion.

Why were there more Brigham Young fans than Beach fans?

I guess maybe it was because the majority of the BYU players are from Southern California. The men and women's volleyball teams at Long Beach State are the best sports teams this school has to offer, but the 49er fan section was smaller than a school not even in California.

Next year, the 49er men's volleyball team will be the best in the nation.

Greg Hanson is a print journalism major.