![8Sports Sportsd49er@gmail.comMonday, April 13, 2015
Sunday afternoon began with
a scrum and ended with the Long
Beach State rugby club team con-
quering its fourth straight Gold
Coast league title, beating Santa Bar-
bara City College 47-17 at The Beach.
The 49ers cruised to a fourth
straight league title, dominating
their two weekend opponents by a
combined score of 121-29.
“You don’t hear a lot of teams win-
ning four in a row,” fifth year senior
and rugby player Martin Sanchez
said. “It’s a testament to the coaches
and players that keep coming out.”
After LBSU’s (30-0) defense sur-
rendered 12 points in the first half
against Cal State Fullerton on Satur-
day, the most points allowed in the
first half all year, it’s defensive ap-
proach settled down and went back
to the basics.
“We started to play Ping-Pong
with them,” LBSU head coach Jason
Reynolds said. “We had to stop what
we were doing, and readjust. What
happens when you play a team like
[Fullerton] that isn’t as good as
you are, you tend to play down to
their level and you try to do stuff
so fast because you can see that
they’re sloppy and the ball is rolling
around.”
LBSU’s defense locked down after
CSUF scored first, then its offense
exploded, scoring 74 unanswered
points to win 74-12.
“Once we settled down we were
more structured and were able to put
more points on the board,” Reynolds
said.
In Sunday’s championship game
the 49ers faced off against Santa
Barbara City College, who defeated
University of San Diego on Satur-
day. Santa Barbara’s fans traveled
with the club and made sure their
voices were heard.
Nguyen, who is known as “Pan-
da,” said that playing in the middle
of the scrum is rough but said that
being mentally tough and blocking
out outside noise is more important
in rugby than anything else.
“It’s hard, it’s more of a mental
game,” Nguyen said. “Physicality is
going to be there, but mentally you
have to be tuned in.”
LBSU outplayed Santa Barbara on
all of its scoring tries. Its tenacious
defensive play held off Santa Barbara
from making any comeback attempt.
“It’s mentally more about your
heart and the will that you have in
your mind, which is the motor we’ve
tried to instill into the program,”
Sanchez said.
Nguyen said the club’s business
mentality filters out any distractions
from their opponent’s tactics, add-
ing, “we don’t do any of that bullshit-
ting around.”
“We don’t play to any other team’s
game,” Nguyen said. “We keep to
ourselves and we score. It’s business.
[We] get back to the line and [are]
ready to score again.”
LBSU celebrated its win by
drenching Reynolds with a cooler
full of water.
“It means everything,” Reynolds
said. “I love LBSU rugby. I’m only
the fourth coach here in 41 years.
So the most important thing for me
is carrying on the philosophy that
was started by Dr. Dale Toohey who
started the club.”
The club will head up north to UC
Davis in two weeks to compete in the
Elite Eight.
Baseball
The Long Beach State baseball team
will take its road woes down the coast
on Tuesday night when it takes on UC
San Diego.
The Dirtbags (18-12) are coming off a
series loss to UC Irvine and will quickly
turn their attention to another strong
opponent in the Toreros (20-13). They
have not fared well on the road this
season, going just 3-7 away from Blair
Field. The only thing that travels well
for the Dirtbags is their pitching.
LBSU has one of the best pitching
staffs in the country. The team ranks
No.11 in the country in both ERA and
strikeout to walk ratio. They lead the
Big West Conference in almost all sta-
tistical pitching categories.
Freshman right-hander Chris
Mathewson said pitching coach Mike
Steele has made a significant difference
in the team.
“He’s made a big impact on me and
gotten me a lot better,” Mathewson
said. “He always tells me not to do more
when I don’t need to.”
However, as good as the Dirtbags
have been on the mound they’ve been
the exact opposite at the plate. They
rank dead last in the Big West in hits,
batting average and on base percentage.
Head coach Troy Buckley said it is not
feasible to rely so heavily on the pitch-
ing staff the rest of the season if they
want to compete.
“We’ve challenged [our players] on
[offense],” Buckley said. “It’s not from
a lack of effort. Some of it is talent and
inexperience.”
Seventeen-year head coach Rich
Hill has The Toreros sitting atop of the
standings in the West Coast Confer-
ence. A mix of solid defense and offense
has the Toreros rolling this season.
They have the best defensive fielding
percentage and second best batting av-
erage in their conference.
USA baseball named junior short-
stop Kyle Holder to the midseason
Golden Spikes Award watch list on
Thursday. He leads the conference in
both batting average and on base per-
centage while starting every game so
far.
On the mound, the Toreros feature
junior right-hander David Hill. He has
earned West Coast Conference Rawl-
ings Pitcher of the week honors twice
this season. USD has the second best
ERA in the WCC, trailing only Gon-
zaga. Shortstop sophomore Garrett
Hampson said the team can’t get too
high or too low mentally in the match-
up.
“We just need to play the right way
and keep the team rolling,” Hampson
said.
The first pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.
Tuesday at Fowler Park.
Rugby
football club
wins league
The Dirtbags
will look to take
home-winning
ways on the
road.
By William Hernandez
Contributing Writer
Bobby Yagake | Daily 49er
Long Beach State defeats Santa Barbara City College 47-17 at home on Sunday to obtain the team’s fourth
straight Gold Coast league title.
Rugby
The Long Beach State
rugby football club won
its fourth straight league
title.
By Eddie Rivera
Contributing Writer
Road losses pile up
Bobby Yagake | Daily
49er
After losing two
straight games to UC
Irvine, Long Beach
State steals the last
game of the series
with a 5-0 win over
the Anteaters on
Sunday.
Women’s Volleyball
Sand kicked up from the court and
blew away into the breeze as Long
Beach State sand volleyball senior Bre
Mackie and sophomore Jenelle Hudson
defeated Hawaii in two sets Saturday
afternoon at the USA Volleyball Beach
Collegiate Challenge.
The 49ers (10-4) sent five groups of
two to the tournament. Three of their
five dual teams lost to Hawaii (12-1) be-
fore all five trounced the University of
San Francisco.
Mackie said the success for her pair
in the tournament was about being
able to adapt to the weather conditions,
which allowed them to put the Rain-
bow Wahine away.
“I think we just needed to adjust
a little faster to keep the side out,”
Mackie said. “We needed to stay level
headed and just play our game.”
Mackie and Hudson took their
match against Hawaii after Mackie
slammed down a kill to end both sets
and bring the pair a win to start off the
weekend.
“Playing Hawaii, I thought we did
a really good job,” LBSU head coach
Mike Campbell said. “It was a tough
loss but it puts us in a good spot for the
Championships. When we played USF
I though it was good for us recovering
after an emotional loss, but I thought
we did a really good job refocusing.”
Three pairs advanced to individual
play for LBSU as they took on No.
4 Pepperdine (7-4) Sunday. Mackie,
Hudson and freshmen Rachel Nieto
and Samee Thomas were ultimately
eliminated, leaving the pair of senior
Tyler Jackson and freshman Anete
Brinke as the lone duo for the 49ers.
“[Mackie and Hudson] feel like that
match was all their fault and I just try
to let them know that was a battle,”
Campbell said. “It’s a tough loss but
at the same time it’s an opportunity
to think. There’s a lesson there so they
don’t just pout. I told them it’s going to
be a bad taste in the mouth for a little
bit but I think they recovered pretty
well.”
Jackson and Brinke continued their
winning streak, taking down Hawaii
in two sets. Jackson said that she and
her partner learned from past matches
to help cut down on errors, especially
when they were competing in a week-
end long tournament playing back-to-
back matches.
“I think by learning from other
matches that we’ve lost, we usually
start off really strong and then slow
down and we don’t ever finish and pull
a win towards the end,” Jackson said.
“[We have to] worry about our side, we
always tend to worry about what the
other players are doing so if we worry
about ourselves it helps us out.”
Jackson and Brinke were unable to
continue to the semi-finals after they
lost a three-set thriller to No. 1 USC
(15-0).
The 49ers return to league play when
they travel to Los Angeles to take on
UCLA April 15 starting at 1 p.m.
The 49ers traveled to
Hermosa Beach over the
weekend to compete in
the USA Volleyball Beach
Collegiate Challenge with
nine other schools.
By Kayce Contatore
Contributing Writer
LBSU concludes uneven weekend
title](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/81d7aa26-1455-455a-8b9e-1f423fcb4d10-160417165618/85/Pg-8-04-13-15-1-320.jpg)
Pg.8 04.13.15
- 1. 8Sports Sportsd49er@gmail.comMonday, April 13, 2015 Sunday afternoon began with a scrum and ended with the Long Beach State rugby club team con- quering its fourth straight Gold Coast league title, beating Santa Bar- bara City College 47-17 at The Beach. The 49ers cruised to a fourth straight league title, dominating their two weekend opponents by a combined score of 121-29. “You don’t hear a lot of teams win- ning four in a row,” fifth year senior and rugby player Martin Sanchez said. “It’s a testament to the coaches and players that keep coming out.” After LBSU’s (30-0) defense sur- rendered 12 points in the first half against Cal State Fullerton on Satur- day, the most points allowed in the first half all year, it’s defensive ap- proach settled down and went back to the basics. “We started to play Ping-Pong with them,” LBSU head coach Jason Reynolds said. “We had to stop what we were doing, and readjust. What happens when you play a team like [Fullerton] that isn’t as good as you are, you tend to play down to their level and you try to do stuff so fast because you can see that they’re sloppy and the ball is rolling around.” LBSU’s defense locked down after CSUF scored first, then its offense exploded, scoring 74 unanswered points to win 74-12. “Once we settled down we were more structured and were able to put more points on the board,” Reynolds said. In Sunday’s championship game the 49ers faced off against Santa Barbara City College, who defeated University of San Diego on Satur- day. Santa Barbara’s fans traveled with the club and made sure their voices were heard. Nguyen, who is known as “Pan- da,” said that playing in the middle of the scrum is rough but said that being mentally tough and blocking out outside noise is more important in rugby than anything else. “It’s hard, it’s more of a mental game,” Nguyen said. “Physicality is going to be there, but mentally you have to be tuned in.” LBSU outplayed Santa Barbara on all of its scoring tries. Its tenacious defensive play held off Santa Barbara from making any comeback attempt. “It’s mentally more about your heart and the will that you have in your mind, which is the motor we’ve tried to instill into the program,” Sanchez said. Nguyen said the club’s business mentality filters out any distractions from their opponent’s tactics, add- ing, “we don’t do any of that bullshit- ting around.” “We don’t play to any other team’s game,” Nguyen said. “We keep to ourselves and we score. It’s business. [We] get back to the line and [are] ready to score again.” LBSU celebrated its win by drenching Reynolds with a cooler full of water. “It means everything,” Reynolds said. “I love LBSU rugby. I’m only the fourth coach here in 41 years. So the most important thing for me is carrying on the philosophy that was started by Dr. Dale Toohey who started the club.” The club will head up north to UC Davis in two weeks to compete in the Elite Eight. Baseball The Long Beach State baseball team will take its road woes down the coast on Tuesday night when it takes on UC San Diego. The Dirtbags (18-12) are coming off a series loss to UC Irvine and will quickly turn their attention to another strong opponent in the Toreros (20-13). They have not fared well on the road this season, going just 3-7 away from Blair Field. The only thing that travels well for the Dirtbags is their pitching. LBSU has one of the best pitching staffs in the country. The team ranks No.11 in the country in both ERA and strikeout to walk ratio. They lead the Big West Conference in almost all sta- tistical pitching categories. Freshman right-hander Chris Mathewson said pitching coach Mike Steele has made a significant difference in the team. “He’s made a big impact on me and gotten me a lot better,” Mathewson said. “He always tells me not to do more when I don’t need to.” However, as good as the Dirtbags have been on the mound they’ve been the exact opposite at the plate. They rank dead last in the Big West in hits, batting average and on base percentage. Head coach Troy Buckley said it is not feasible to rely so heavily on the pitch- ing staff the rest of the season if they want to compete. “We’ve challenged [our players] on [offense],” Buckley said. “It’s not from a lack of effort. Some of it is talent and inexperience.” Seventeen-year head coach Rich Hill has The Toreros sitting atop of the standings in the West Coast Confer- ence. A mix of solid defense and offense has the Toreros rolling this season. They have the best defensive fielding percentage and second best batting av- erage in their conference. USA baseball named junior short- stop Kyle Holder to the midseason Golden Spikes Award watch list on Thursday. He leads the conference in both batting average and on base per- centage while starting every game so far. On the mound, the Toreros feature junior right-hander David Hill. He has earned West Coast Conference Rawl- ings Pitcher of the week honors twice this season. USD has the second best ERA in the WCC, trailing only Gon- zaga. Shortstop sophomore Garrett Hampson said the team can’t get too high or too low mentally in the match- up. “We just need to play the right way and keep the team rolling,” Hampson said. The first pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday at Fowler Park. Rugby football club wins league The Dirtbags will look to take home-winning ways on the road. By William Hernandez Contributing Writer Bobby Yagake | Daily 49er Long Beach State defeats Santa Barbara City College 47-17 at home on Sunday to obtain the team’s fourth straight Gold Coast league title. Rugby The Long Beach State rugby football club won its fourth straight league title. By Eddie Rivera Contributing Writer Road losses pile up Bobby Yagake | Daily 49er After losing two straight games to UC Irvine, Long Beach State steals the last game of the series with a 5-0 win over the Anteaters on Sunday. Women’s Volleyball Sand kicked up from the court and blew away into the breeze as Long Beach State sand volleyball senior Bre Mackie and sophomore Jenelle Hudson defeated Hawaii in two sets Saturday afternoon at the USA Volleyball Beach Collegiate Challenge. The 49ers (10-4) sent five groups of two to the tournament. Three of their five dual teams lost to Hawaii (12-1) be- fore all five trounced the University of San Francisco. Mackie said the success for her pair in the tournament was about being able to adapt to the weather conditions, which allowed them to put the Rain- bow Wahine away. “I think we just needed to adjust a little faster to keep the side out,” Mackie said. “We needed to stay level headed and just play our game.” Mackie and Hudson took their match against Hawaii after Mackie slammed down a kill to end both sets and bring the pair a win to start off the weekend. “Playing Hawaii, I thought we did a really good job,” LBSU head coach Mike Campbell said. “It was a tough loss but it puts us in a good spot for the Championships. When we played USF I though it was good for us recovering after an emotional loss, but I thought we did a really good job refocusing.” Three pairs advanced to individual play for LBSU as they took on No. 4 Pepperdine (7-4) Sunday. Mackie, Hudson and freshmen Rachel Nieto and Samee Thomas were ultimately eliminated, leaving the pair of senior Tyler Jackson and freshman Anete Brinke as the lone duo for the 49ers. “[Mackie and Hudson] feel like that match was all their fault and I just try to let them know that was a battle,” Campbell said. “It’s a tough loss but at the same time it’s an opportunity to think. There’s a lesson there so they don’t just pout. I told them it’s going to be a bad taste in the mouth for a little bit but I think they recovered pretty well.” Jackson and Brinke continued their winning streak, taking down Hawaii in two sets. Jackson said that she and her partner learned from past matches to help cut down on errors, especially when they were competing in a week- end long tournament playing back-to- back matches. “I think by learning from other matches that we’ve lost, we usually start off really strong and then slow down and we don’t ever finish and pull a win towards the end,” Jackson said. “[We have to] worry about our side, we always tend to worry about what the other players are doing so if we worry about ourselves it helps us out.” Jackson and Brinke were unable to continue to the semi-finals after they lost a three-set thriller to No. 1 USC (15-0). The 49ers return to league play when they travel to Los Angeles to take on UCLA April 15 starting at 1 p.m. The 49ers traveled to Hermosa Beach over the weekend to compete in the USA Volleyball Beach Collegiate Challenge with nine other schools. By Kayce Contatore Contributing Writer LBSU concludes uneven weekend title