This week’s Spill the Tea

THE ’BAGS ARE BACK

The Dirtbags picked up their first series win over a ranked opponent since beating ASU last April.

COURTESY OF KODIE REDONGO The Long Beach State Men’s Club Volleyball poses after going undefeated at a tournament held by UC Riverside Saturday, Nov. 2.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE NET

Although the Division 1 team may get all the national attention, the Long Beach State Men’s Club Volleyball team competes against some of the best club teams in the nation.

By William Dunyon Staff Writer

Inside the East Gym of the Kinesiology Building, the squeaking of sneakers and the slapping of volleyballs echoes through the halls with the intensity of a Friday night game at the Walter Pyramid. A few hundred feet away from the enormous banner donning “Back-To-Back National Champions” that covers the side of the Pyramid parking structure, the enthusiastic bunch responsible for this noise is the Long Beach State Men’s Club Volleyball team.

Being the club team at CSULB, which is home to one of the nation’s best Division 1 volleyball programs, can leave big shoes to fill, but this group feels no pressure in its pursuit of success.

“I feel like other teams look at us differently, but we don’t compare ourselves to anyone else,” said Kenny Brittain, senior club president. “We just go out and try to play our best.”

The club holds tryouts every semester, and although some clubs at the Beach are struggling to find enough members to field a full team, the volleyball club has the opposite issue.

“We had almost 90 sign-ups last semester,” Brittain said, “but for the actual tryout, we had about 30 or 40 people show up.”

Established in 2002, the club is entirely student-run and supported by fundraisers, member dues and a grant from the university.

“We are our own coach,” Brittain said. The club is made up of 21 members, but the traveling roster for tournaments has to be cut down to 16.

The deciding factor for reducing the total size of the club comes down to financial issues.

“With our budget, we have to really limit the number of people we take, because traveling out of state to [Las] Vegas and nationals is not cheap,” said Kodie Redongo, senior club treasurer.

The woes don’t end with the club’s finances. The practice conditions are less than ideal, as often times throughout drills and scrimmages the ball will ricochet off of support beams of the low gym ceiling.

The club even had some of its practice time taken away this semester due to having to share the East Gym with other campus clubs.

Despite the struggles, this year’s seniors feel more confident about the success of the team than in years past due to an influx of new recruits that are passionate about the sport.

“Our last tournament in San Diego we finished third, losing to [No. 2] ASU in the semis,” Brittain said. “The fact that we were able to hang in with them shows how strong our team is this year.”

With the season of tournaments underway, the club will be looking to have its name added to the “Volleyball Nation” sign outside of the Pyramid with a championship of its own.

“This is our most skilled team we’ve had in a while,” said Tyler Power, senior club secretary. “Our goal is to finish high in the gold bracket this year at nationals.”

The CSULB Men’s Club Volleyball team will compete in its next tournament March 7 at UCSD.

By Mark Lindahl Sports Editor

After a disappointing season last year, the Dirtbags are back, picking up thier first series win over a ranked opponent against No. 17 Wake Forest.

The Demon Deacons (3-3) entered the series hitting over .300 as a team, but were limited to only five hits through two games against Long Beach’s (4-2) promising pitching staff.

“[Ramirez] was throwing all four pitches for strikes,” Dirtbags head coach Eric Valenzuela said of Ramirez’s performance against Wake Forest. “We had them guessing and confused all day long.”

Long Beach won the first game of the series 6-2 with the aid of weather conditions causing fielding errors by Wake Forest. The Dirtbags bats came to life in game two, blasting 11 hits to ignite a 7-3 come-from-behind win.

“It was a big growing up day,” Valenzuela said after the Feb. 22 win to secure the series. Overall, the Dirtbags had 17 hits to the ‘Deacons eight, while outscoring them 13 to five, limiting one of the nation’s best offenses with pleasing performances from young pitchers.

Sophomore RHP Alfredo Ruiz (2-0) was named the National Pitcher of the Week by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association for his performance last week. Ruiz has put together impressive stats in his 14 innings pitched with 14 strikeouts, four hits and zero earned runs.

Freshman RHP Luis Ramirez has shown off his impressive arm as well, recording 15 strikeouts in 11.1 innings pitched.

Redshirt Freshman outfielder Connor Kokx has led the brigade of bats for the Dirtbags with three doubles while recording a .462 batting average.

The Dirtbags fielding has been one of the few inconsistencies this season, committing 11 errors in six games.

But Long Beach is in prime position to bounce back after an abysmal 14-41 season last year.

Long Beach State will host its next ranked opponent, No. 10 Mississippi State beginning Friday, Feb. 28 at Bohl Diamond at Blair Field.

Robert Hollar, Dirtbags beat reporter, contributed to this story.