The 49ers Women's basketball team hold off the hapless Owls

The 49ers earned a tough win against Rice with a 68-64 victory in the University of Miami's Thanksgiving Tournament Saturday afternoon.

Long Beach State had four players in double figures led by senior Karina Figueroa with 17 points. Figueroa had an all around great game adding five assits and four rebounds. She made six clutch free throws at the end of the game to clinch it for the 49ers.

Rice stated the game with a 19-5 edge. The 49ers then chipped into that lead with a 17-2 run. They later took the lead at 25-23 after two free throws by Lindsey Beckner. The two teams went back and forth the entire game leading to Figueroa's clutch finish at 62-61. It was a good win for the 49ers putting them at .500 with a 3-3 record.

Long Beach State next game is Thursday against USC in the Pyramid. Coach Jody Wynn will be going against her former team.

Women's Volleyball faces UCLA to start the NCAA Tournament

The Big West champions the 49ers will go up against UCLA in their second match of the year.

Earlier this year the 49ers defeated the Bruins in three sets. The last time these two teams met in the NCAA tourney was in 2004 at UCLA.

Long Beach State is coming off another great year. They won the Big West conference for the second straight year. This will be the teams 23rd consecutive appearance in the NCAA tournament. Coach Brian Gimmillaro is looking to win his fourth national title. The 49ers will be led by five players who were named to the All-Big West team ( Naomi Washington, Ashley Lee, Caitlin Ledoux, Brittney Herzog, and Jocelyn Neely).

The tourney will start for the 49ers on December 4 at Pauley Pavilion. Their game versus the Bruins starts 5:30 p.m. If they win the second round game would be the following day at 7.

Women's Volleyball has two huge Big West games that will decided the league's Champion

The 49ers this week will have two big league games that they need to win.

The first game is Friday with a home game against UC Riverside. The 49ers played very well the last time these two teams faced. Led by All-American Naomi Washington the team won the match three sets to one. In that game Caitlin Ledoux became just the third 49er to earn 33 kills in a match. That tied the six-most kills in a game by a 49er player. The 49ers looked to earn another competitive win when they face.

The most important game of the season may come Saturday. The 49ers face co-Big West leader UC Irvine in the Walter Pyramid. Earlier this year the Anteaters won a very competitive five set match. Ledoux put together another great performance in that game with 18 kills and 21 digs but it wasn't enough. With this being the last league game of the season, this match will mostly likely decide the winner of the conference.

Barclay earns All Big West Honors after a great weekend at the Big West Cross Country Championships

Long Beach State Senior Missy Barclay was the top runner for the women as she recorded her personal best time in 21:01 in the 6K run finishing eighth at the Big West Championship in Riverside.

Barclay lead the 49ers to a fourth place finish as the women team tallied 100 points. This was the highest finish that the team had since 2007 when they also finished fourth with just 97 points.

Barclay wasn't the only 49er thriving, as Freshmen Annie Randall continued her impressive first year performance by crossing the line at her personal best time of 21:15. Randall came across in 13th place.

The 49ers Cross Country team return to action as they travel to Oregon for the NCAA West Regional, Saturday, Nov. 14, hosted by the University of Oregon.

The Beach Women's Volleyball team was tricked and treated to a lost on Halloween night by the Gauchos

Big plays did not come down in favor for the women's volleyball team as the 49ers lost on the road, 23-25, 20-25, 16-25 at UC Santa Barbara. Senior All-American Naomi Washington continue her great play with 13 kills.

Long Beach State held an early lead in the first set, gaining as big as a 19-15 lead. But then the momentum just went towards the home teams way, as the Gauchos scored four straight points. The two teams went back and forth until UC Santa Barbara finally took the set.

In set number two, momentum shifts were the big story. The Gauchos took a quick 6-1 lead and then made it bigger by making it 15-8. But then the 49ers came storming back and took the lead making it a score 18-15 after ten straight points. But once again the home team came back tying it at 19-19, then winning the set by five points.

In the third set the 49ers were no match. The Gauchos jumped out to a 9-2 lead and never looked back. The closes the 49ers got was within five points.

The 49ers have two home games coming up this week and are hoping to get back to their winning ways. They host Pacific on Friday followed by a game against UC Davis the next night.

The Beach Women's Soccer team falls short in an overtime loss at UC Santa Barbra

After trailing earlier the 49er's took a second half lead but couldn't hold on to it and suffered a gut-wrenching loss at conference-leading UC Santa Barbra 3-2.

The 49ers fell to 5-7-2 overall and 1-2 in the Big West, while the Gauchos improved to 7-7-1, 4-1 in the conference.

Sophomore Shawna Gordon has continued to play well by scoring another goal this season and added an assist. The assist went to Junior Bo Rael, who scored her first goal of her career.

UCSB scored first in the 28th minute when Jacqui Simon sent a through ball to Kailyn Kulger, who found Kylie McDonald fot her first goal of the season.

The Beach had six shots on goal in the first half but could not score. Shawna Gordon and freshmen Jenny Soza had two shots each.

The score was eventually tied when Gordon made a great shot, when she made a 20 yard shot over the UCSB goalkeeper at the 70:51 mark. It was her fifth goal of the season.

Rael then help the 49ers take the lead with her goal nearly 12 minutes later. The Gachos then scored on a header by McDonald in the 86th minute. She scored after her teammates intial shot went off the crossbar. The Gauchos scored in the sudden death overtime to take the win.

Long Beach State returns to action on Sunday, Oct. 18, when it travels to San Luis Obispo for a 1 p.m. showdown with Cal Poly.

Three Women's tennis players reach the Fullerton Invitational finals

Jaklin Alawi and Rachel Manasse defeated the doubles team of Cal Poly on the way to advancing to the Flight A Doubles championship match at the Fullerton Invitational. The duo was joined by Julie Luzar who has played well all fall with two more single wins.

Alawi and Manasse enjoyed the win of the day when they defeated a ranked Mustangs duo of Markhoff/Matzenauer winning 8-6 and advancing to the semifinals. The duo then defeated the team from Cal State Northridge 8-4 to advance to the finals. They will face another Cal Poly duo, this time going against Blalock and Wong who defeated the other 49er tandem Deborah Armstrong and Anais Dallara 8-6.

Julie Luzar singles magic has continued by beating Concordia's Krisitin Yep 6-4, 6-3 before her exciting win against CS Northridge's Brooke Doane 7-5, 7-6 (3). Luzar will now play Joclyn Davis in the Flight B singles final tomorrow.