Daily 49er, February 21, 2019

D 49

LONG BEACH STATE | VOL. LXX, ISSUE 32 | FEBRUARY 21, 2019

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Opinion: LBSU insists on wasting its money on escalators and a new mascot instead of resources that benefit students.

Page 8

2 NEWS

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INSIDE

ON THE COVER

NINER

THE

A rare sighting as the escalators are actually working!

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ASI moves closer to passing Senate Bill 24 page 3

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CITY COUNCIL Copy Editor

Scooter Pilot Program gets extended Long Beach City Council listens to concerns about the current scooter program.

By Alejandro Chousal Contributing Writer

Long Beach’s Scooter Pilot Program will be extended another six months as the city council plans to look into a more permanent program.

The council voted 8-0 Tuesday among support from residents.

“I enjoy it and it saves me a lot of money,” said Long Beach resident Senay Kenfe. “I don’t have to take two buses anymore, I just wake up and take a scooter and save around $40 to $50 a month.”

Richard Fernandez, a resident who charges batteries for Bird Scooters, said the scooters have brought a new opportunity to supplement income.

“This helped me since I’ve gone a while without work,” Fernandez said. “It has helped me pay rent and pursue my career as a musician.”

The council will bring the pilot under review in six months to discuss changes. The changes pose the pos-

HANNAH GETAHUN | Daily 49er

Long Beach City Council is extending the e-scooter program and is looking at a permanent solution within the next six months. sibility of lower rates for low income neighborhoods, better enforced rules and raising the cap from 4,000 scooters to 6,000.

Councilmember Suzie Price said she has received thousands of emails explaining scooters on the sidewalk are a large issue. She hopes the city can join with vendors to enforce rules better to combat this issue.

The director of the Department of Public Works, Craig Beck, cited an

online survey which stated 55 percent of Long Beach residents think e-scooters are necessary to fill a gap in city transportation.

“Over half are using them for work, errands or to get around. They’re using them for necessary functions for their lives,” said Mayor Robert Garcia. “It is an incredibly diverse reflection of the community.”

The next city council meeting will be March 5 at 5 p.m.

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Editorials: All opinions expressed in the columns, letters and cartoons in this issue are those of the writers or artists.

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By Perry Continente

Outside of the meeting, Constable clarified his positions on abortion.

“People think Christians are staunchly against people getting abortion,” Constable said.

He explained that he was supportive of abortion techniques being used to remove a stillborn fetus. However, he did not support abortion in the cases of incest or rape.

Assistant News Editor perrycontinente

Students, alumni and advocates packed and overflowed the Associated Students Inc. Senate chambers Wednesday to voice support or opposition for Senate Bill 24, which would require all University of California and California State Universities to provide medically induced abortions by 2023.

The resolution would allow Lobby Corps, a branch of ASI, to campaign for several bills related to students, including SB 24.

After the discussion, the bill supporting SB 24 in addition to other legislation was passed 13-2-4. This was the second of three votes needed to pass the resolution.

Before the meeting, around a dozen prochoice demonstrators set up a table outside, carrying pro-choice signs such as “feminists fighting for reproductive justice” and “keep abortion legal.”

Emily Escobar, an alumna of Long Beach State and member of the Feminist Majority Foundation, emphasized the importance of accessible abortions, especially for low-income students.

As the meeting began, the crowd of activists filed inside. The overflow required ASI to add seating outside the gallery, a rarity for the usually sparsely attended meetings.

When the senate opened the floor to public comment, one of the first to speak was Jessy Rosales of the Women’s Foundation of California, a group that supports women’s reproductive rights.

“This bill is about access to your rights,” Rosales said. “Without access to our rights, what rights do we really have?”

The accessibility includes proximity to health services, a hurdle that is harder to jump for low-income students, she added.

“It is about implementing medication-based abortions on campus,” Rosales said. “Some folks have to travel four hours to get the care that they need.”

Rosales was followed by several prochoice advocates who spoke on facets of the issue including ethics, income and accessibility.

Abortion rights supporter Alejandra Gonzalez asserted that abortion rights are of the utmost importance for women who miscarry. “[People who have miscarriages] have to go through such layers of bureaucracy to get their dead child out of their body,” she said. “It should be considered horrendous, it should be considered oppression.”

There were a few pro-life supporters in attendance, including Michael Constable, a senior accounting major.

“I am a Christian and I believe that this is murder,” Constable said. He then asked the senate to “think about the blood on [their] hands.”

“

This bill is

about access

to your rights.

Without access to our rights, what rights do we really have?

”

Jessy Rosales, Women’s Foundation of California

HANNAH GETAHUN | Daily 49er

Autumn Durand, a pro-choice activist, joined fellow activists before the ASI meeting.

Around a dozen supporters tabled with pro-choice signs, such as “keep abortion legal.”

ABORTION

Activists debate right to life ASI support for abortion bill passes vote.

“Should we punish the child for someone’s disgusting act?” he asked. “If a mother has a baby and chooses to keep the baby even if the father chooses to rape her, that’s brave.”

Following public comment, Sen. Michelle Fukuda spoke in favor of the bill and emphasized that abortion is a personal choice.

“There are people who are for and against vaccinations, but it doesn’t mean that us as a school are for or against it,” Fukuda said.

“There was controversy on providing birth control … for people who don’t want to use it they don’t have to use it.”

Sen. Robert Martinez, however, had his reservations about the bill, and said that it may not represent all students’ viewpoints.

“I’m having a really hard time of this, regardless of my personal views,” he said.

Following the affirmative vote, Constable approached the microphone looking crestfallen.

He urged the senate to do their research and called fetuses “the most defenseless people in this nation.”

Rosales voiced her support for the bill.

“This bill is again, about access,” said Rosales, citing the bill’s importance. “[It’s] part of having holistic reproductive healthcare.”

ASI meetings take place at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesdays. The final vote on the senate resolution,including SB 24, will be Wednesday, Feb. 27.

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Q&A

Face of VR pays a visit to alma mater LBSU Alumnus and virtual reality pioneer Palmer Luckey talks to students about VR and other current tech trends.

By Brelio Lozano Staff Writer

T

he former face of the virtual world has come back to his old reality.

Palmer Luckey, co-founder of Oculus, paid a visit to Long Beach State, where it all started for him.

Luckey spoke to a journalism class about his widely publicized career, gave his thoughts on current technological trends and provided students with insight into the world of Silicon Valley startups.

The LBSU alumnus grew up in Long Beach and attended Golden West College and Long Beach City College. He enrolled at the university in 2010 as a journalism student and worked at the Daily 49er as online editor.

Luckey took a break from school to focus on his virtual reality headset. Soon after making a significant breakthrough, Luckey began a Kickstarter campaign for his Virtual Reality headset Oculus Rift. Luckey’s headset gained the endorsement of prominent video game companies and Silicon Valley tech companies. Luckey set a goal of $250,000 to fund Oculus. Within 24 hours, Oculus raised $670,000. After three days, they raised over a million dollars. Eighteen months later, Facebook had purchased his VR company Oculus for $3 billion dollars.

Things didn’t go as well as he hoped, when two years ago Luckey was fired from Facebook after controversy over his support for a pro-Trump group, he said.

Immediately after, the 26-year-old alum-

LBSU alumin Palmer Luckey, right, demonstrates his virtual reality gaming headset, Oculus.

ni co-founded his new company, Anduril Industries, a defense technology start-up based in Orange County. Anduril focuses on augmented reality and virtual reality for national defense and security applications.

Luckey was able to conduct a short Q&A with several students in attendance: How were you so confident to leave school and start a business? What motivated you to do that in the first place?

For a long time I was working on my VR headset, on my own, in my garage, years before I went school. I didn’t go into VR because I wanted to start a business. I got into it because I was very fascinated with virtual reality and the concept of escaping into a virtual world and leaving the real one behind.

For years it was just a hobby, and then all of a sudden I had a pretty big breakthrough in the quality of my device. I had been showing it to people and close friends for years to show them, “Hey, here’s what I’ve been working on,” and the universal response was “This is stupid and so are you.” These were my close friends, and they were telling me the truth. Then I made a pretty significant breakthrough, and all of sudden everyone was saying, “Hey man, I was wrong, this is actually cool now.” And so, when you are excited by something, kind of discount that, because you can easily get excited by your own thing. But when you get other people excited about it, that’s when you know you have something very special.

How did the Oculus Rift get so much

exposure before it even launched?

I don’t know how to put this without being all braggadocious, but the Oculus Rift was revolutionary. It was the lightest, widest field-of-view lowest latency VR headset that ever existed, and we were selling it for $300.

There were headsets that were far worse that had been sold for professional and academic applications in the $60,000 to $100,000 range, that we were far superior to. So it was a really, really big deal. People had been dreaming about VR for years and decades and I think that VR is going to change the world. I think it is an inevitable technology that is going to get better and better and better. Imagine it just gets 5 percent better every year, and compound that for decades.

It is going to eventually meet or surpass the quality of actually seeing something in real life, and when we can do that, it will take off.

To get all that attention, we showed it to a lot of people, who other people trusted.

Game developers like Gabe Newell, CEO of Valve, Cliff Bleszinski, former lead designer of Epic Games, John Carmack of id Software and others in that industry. By showing it to all these people, we were able to get testimonials and endorsements for our Kickstarter, and that was how we got all this attention.

So there are unlimited possibilities for this technology? Where would you want to see this technology go?

I know where it is going first, and the first place where it will be truly dominant in is gaming ... The gaming industry is the only

MCT

industry where the technology, the tools and the talent [is used] to build real-time 3D worlds in an effective and entertaining way. It’s the three T’s. Journalism doesn’t have the three T’s. The aerospace industry doesn’t have the three T’s. The architecture industry is just starting to get the three T’s, because they can make so much money using VR, pre-visualizing things before they are built, run through areas before you waste money putting something together. Gaming will be able to take off first because of that and also because gamers spend a bunch of money on early technology that is not quite consumer-ready. In the long run, the thing I’m most excited about is telepresence and teleworking. I have been all over the world.

I have been on hundreds of international flights in the last seven years, going back and forth [to] China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan with our vendors, suppliers and manufacturers.

Many of my meetings [consisted of] getting on an airplane, going somewhere, going to a bleak business hotel, into a conference room, shake hands, exchange cards and talk for a while and then leave. That could have been done in virtual reality. There are some things you will not be able to do in VR that you can do in real life, but you can simulate going into a conference room and load 3D models and all of that. I’m really excited because it can cut down on my travel time, it can cut down on emissions from going back and forth and let people become a lot more efficient. If you can have people from around the world and collaborate in the same space at the same time, that is going to be very powerful.

NEWS 5

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ENGINEERING

Construction management team places third in competition

By Saad Kazi Staff Writer

L

ong Beach State’s construction management department placed third in the Concrete Solutions category at the 2019 Associate Schools of Construction Student Competition in Sparks, Nevada.

LBSU’s concrete team was one of 12 teams that participated in the category on Feb 6-9.

California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, University of Washington and Virginia Tech were some of the other contenders.

“This was an opportunity to put our school on the map and to show other schools that CSULB is here to win,” team member Denis Anguillet said.

The concrete solutions track consisted of providing a budget, safety plan, logistics and a 3D model to create an efficient way to

resolve a construction problem. The team of seven, most of which have little or no industry experience, practiced similar problems in preparation for the event.

Faculty coach Tariq Shehab called the award “a great achievement.” The civil engineering and construction management professor said he believed the success would not have been possible without “great preparation efforts and dedicated team members.”

Although LBSU’s construction management team has won awards in the past, this is the highest they have placed in the Concrete Solutions category.

“We all believed we had a good run but never thought we would be one of the top three teams of the competition,” Anguillet said. “This award was more than just an individual award but more as a team effort. It paves the way for future teams to become successful by having the resources and knowledge available to them.”

CSULB

LBSU’s construction management team placed third at the 2019 Associate Schools of Construction Student Competition in Nevada Feb. 6-9.

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6 ARTS & LIFE

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The #BlackQueerStories brings an opportunity for student of the LGBTQ+ community to come together and share their stories.

RACHEL HANNA Daily 49er

LGBTQ+

#BlackQueerStories: a tell-all event The LBSU community comes together to celebrate queer voices during ASI’s hosted evening.

By Rachel Hanna Staff Writer

The smell of jambalaya and pizza took over the room as a group of students and faculty hurried in University Student Union room 205 for a night full of sharing their authentic stories.

Attendees gathered Tuesday night to celebrate queer voices in the Black community for Associated Students Inc.’s #BlackQueerStories event.

This intimate event at Long Beach State was meant to highlight Black LGBTQ+ figures in the community, some long passed and some still prominent in order to encourage a healthy community for students on campus. The comfortable and supportive space allowed students to have conversations they might not have anywhere else.

“The goal for tonight is to have students be the authors of their stories and be their authentic selves,” said Giovanni Smith, staff member in University Outreach and School Relations. “The goal is to get students to see there have been people before that have paved the way.”

Linda Shaw, LGBTQ+ Cultural Resource Center student assistant, showed eight icons in a PowerPoint presentation to show those who attended the event that many in the past and still today have overcome obstacles.

“James Baldwin showed that we as people, even with our body shapes, can do ballet,” said Angela Williams, staff member in the Multicultural Center during a group discussion. “I grew up in an area where I was segregated and couldn’t do ballet.”

Smith and Shaw said the goals of the night were to have students practice active listening, provide a judgement free zone, show compassion, think critically to respect their fellow peers and have empathy for one another.

A night filled with open discussions, diving deep into personal stories and feelings brought the evening much emotion. Students and faculty chose a quote on one of the walls that resonated with them most. As conversations began to flow and people shared, the support and respect grew within the group.

The LGBTQ+ community has proudly taken back derogatory terms that people so carelessly throw around. Phrases such as “that’s so gay” or “queer” used to be words others used to oppress people in the LGBTQ+ community.

“Queer was a word to offend,” said Christian Lozano Cuellar, assistant director in the Office of Multicultural Affairs, Student Cultural Resource Centers and Division of Student Affairs during a group discussion. “But over time we have taken that word back and added empowerment to it.”

Maria Vasquez, a sophomore majoring in pre-production, shared a critical time in her life when she was told it is okay

to be your true self during a group discussion.

“I grew up Catholic, so it was really hard because in the church it’s male or female,” Vasquez said. “We would usually go on retreats and a friend said, ‘It’s okay to be gay and it’s okay to be who you are.’ Our mentor, too, said, ‘It’s okay to be who you are’ and this really helped me.”

According to many of the LGBTQ+ students and faculty at the event, there is a degree of freedom at LBSU as it celebrates itself and acknowledges that all communities have their own battles and struggles.

“I love my school. The safety and the community,” said Ky Turk, a senior majoring in family life education. “When I go back home on the weekends, I have my school to go back to the next week.”

There are many groups on campus for the LGBTQ+ community to find their voice, comfort and express themselves including gay fraternity Delta Lambda Phi, Queers and Allies, Rainbow Cafe, Trans Empowerment Group and the LGBTQ+ Resource Center.

Attendees said they felt connected, engaged, relaxed and inspired leaving the event.

“One of my goals would be to inform LGBTQ+ African-Americans contributions to Black history and history in general and to inspire these people who came to the event,” Shaw said. “I got your faces. You were here. You were engaged. I’m happy you were here.”

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ARTS & LIFE 7

PERFORMANCE

The course to ‘Cabaret’ CalRep’s latest show prepares for its premiere night.

By Rachel Barnes Arts & Life Editor rachelsalien

T

he night before the opening of “Cabaret” had cast and crew alike busy and buzzing, trying to perfect their show.

Since early December, the crew has been putting in hours of work a day to get “Cabaret” ready for people to see. Each aspect of California Repertory’s first show of the season was worked on tirelessly by the entire team, and it has already sold out for the first two days of its run.

“We rehearsed for six weeks straight for five days a week,” said Kari Hayter, director of the show. “That’s over 20 hours a week.”

Hayter was nominated for a LA Stage Alliance Ovation Award for Best Direction of a Musical, and has directed many productions in Southern California, some being “Dracula” at Chapman University and “Rent” for California State University, Fullerton.

Behind the scenes, set designers, lighting designers and sound designers aimed to immerse the audience in the atmosphere of “Cabaret.”

From the ceiling to the ground, theater students put the set together themselves.

“We have a lack of labor, so it’s just a few of us working,” said Natalie Morales, set designer for the show. “A big example is the floor; I painted all of that myself.”

Their goal was to portray the time period of 1930’s Berlin in one transforming set. Though they’ve had since the end of last semester to create the set, time is always a limiting factor when trying to perfect an atmosphere.

“I think you always want to consider audience when we do our stuff,” lighting designer David Zahacewski said.

“Cabaret” is known for being dark and passionate in its portrayal of Berliners in an unfriendly and distracted world, much like a metaphor for today’s society. The story follows characters Sally Bowles and Brian Roberts in their love story with complications from new suitor Maximilian von Heune, all during the rise of the Nazi party.

Backstage on Wednesday, the hair and makeup crew worked frantically to transform the cast into the Kit Kat Klub members. The trick, according to makeup designer Elizabeth Bostrom, is to aim for a dramatic and messy look.

“In this specific era it was very much like, ‘We’re going to throw away the norms of ... flush with natural beauty,’” Bostrom said. “It’s like, ‘I’m using products now, makeup was invented and it’s fun to put it on,’ and they’re supposed to look messy.”

Their technique was the opposite of precision, as they wanted to capture the grit and danger of the dancers in the night club. They created fake bruises, hickeys and even made people look like they are under the influence of drugs.

“I think this show shows a different side of people,” said Breeahna Dobson, another makeup artist for the cast. “It shows a different side of the actors too.”

Just before the last dress rehearsal was about to run, actor Michael Grenie was getting ready to perform his role as Herr Schultz, and elderly Jewish man that falls in love with a boarding house owner. This will be his third time performing “Cabaret” in his over 45 years of acting.

“This will be the second time I perform this version” he said. “Even so this version is tweaked a little more, and I’ve loved every minute of it.”

And so the show goes on. Actors, crew members and behind the scenes experts all came together to create a show that they are proud of. Hayter’s vision has come to life to create a theatrical environment.

“The play touches on so many different themes,” she said. “I’m excited to see if they get affected by the play and make connections to their own lives.”

“Cabaret” premieres Friday at 7:30 p.m. with a sold out first night, and an also sold out paid preview of the show 7:30 p.m. Thursday night. The show will run from Feb. 21 through March 3 with general admission tickets costing $23 and student/faculty tickets being $18.

Tickets can be purchased at OvationTix.com.

RACHEL BARNES | Daily 49er

Actress Erin Snett makes last second touch-ups in the mirror before the last dress rehearsal of “Cabaret” in which she plays the character Frenchie.

8 OPINIONS

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$

BUDGET

$ $

LBSU should stop spending money so needlessly A new mascot and escalators should be the least of Long Beach State’s concerns.

By Sahara Barba Staff Writer

W

hen Long Beach State students look back on their time at this school, instead of remembering that our volleyball team received a championship title or that we’re one of the only universities with shark tanks on campus, their memories will be filled with broken escalators and the lack of a mascot.

Long Beach State should spend its funds on improving the academic experience, not on escalators and rebranding the university.

Last June, former California Governor Jerry Brown increased state funding for the California State University system, allowing room for about 4,000 more students to enroll statewide. While that sounds positive, this means classes will increase in size and courses will fill up faster. To accommodate these changes, LBSU will need to spend more money on new infrastructures and hiring staff. Instead the university is spending on the new mascot campaign and repairing escalators that never seem to work

regardless.

Incoming students may be unaware of the university’s current financial situation, but upperclassmen know that last year the commencement ceremony was moved from the Central Quad to the Athletic Soccer Field and live music was almost cut in order to save money due to proposed budget cuts.

According to President Jane Close Conoley, these changes were made in order to save the university $100,000 a year.

While the university is apparently trying to save money, Associated Students, Inc. is spending tens of thousands of dollars on repairing the broken escalators located by the University Student Union, as previously reported by the Daily 49er. Though this task might seem necessary, it shouldn’t take priority over improving quality of education. At this point, with how often the escalators are down, students should be prepared to take the stairs on a regular basis.

Broken escalators can be a frustrating inconvenience, but they’re not worth the $25,000 annual contract that ASI has with Mitsubishi to service the escalators, let alone the $1 million it would cost to replace the escalators. Since the escalators hardly ever

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY RYAN GUITARE | Daily 49er

There are better ways of spending money, but Long Beach State doesnt have its priorities straight. The university spent $1 million on fixing constantly broken escalators and in the near future it will have to deal with mascot costs.

work, the contract is essentially useless and a waste of money.

Students can afford to walk up and down the escalator like a staircase if it means $1 million can be spent to better their learning experience. That money can be used to improve the campus by increasing the amount of mental health resources currently available for students, or by adding more computers in the University Library.

The university is also, no doubt, going to spend a lot of money on a new mascot and rebranding the school if the university is really trying to dissociate itself from the gold rush era. Money will have to be spent on designing new logos, creating new merchandise and changing the names of shops and restaurants on campus.

While it’s unclear how much money a new mascot would cost the university, the funds for the mascot don’t need to be allocated so soon. The university can save money if it phased in the new mascot over the next few years. Deciding on a mascot and spending money to rebrand the campus shouldn’t be a pressing matter, especially given the prevalence of our last mascot, or lack thereof.

Having a mascot typically provides cam-

pus communities with a sense of identity and pride, but Long Beach State hardly used Prospector Pete to raise school spirit lately.

Prospector Pete spent his last few years missing in action, failing to make an appearance at any sports games since 2014. His absence didn’t have an impact on morale — students can still get drunk and cheer at games without the help of a guy in an oversized suit.

No matter what the university chooses as a mascot, the campus community will more than likely continue to chant, “Go Beach,” instead of “Go Giraffes” or whatever ends up being our mascot. The slogan inspires far more pride at school events than Prospector Pete does or ever did.

There are better ways the university can spend its money than on a new mascot and escalators. These projects should be the least of the university’s concerns when considering the impact that increased enrollment will have on students.

The university needs to avoid spending money on projects it can’t afford. It’s much more important for students to be able to enroll in classes and graduate on time than worry about such trivial issues.

SPORTS 9

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WOMEN’S WATER POLO

Long Beach State prepares for crucial invitational The 49ers hit the road for UC Irvine Tournament.

By Teran Rodriguez Staff Writer

The Long Beach State women’s water polo team looks to build off its 10th place finish in the UC San Diego Tournament, as it will participate in the UC Irvine Invitational Friday through Sunday at UC Irvine.

“It’s the most competitive tournament of the year,” head coach Gavin Arroyo said.

“All the best teams are there, so we really get a chance to play against the best.”

Long Beach opens up the UCI Tournament 12:30 p.m. Friday against No. 3 UCLA. The Bruins are led by junior Maddie Musselman, who leads the team with 27 goals and senior goalie Carlee Kapana, who has 80 saves, the most for UCLA. Long Beach (2-6) went 2-2 in the UCSD tournament, losing in the ninth place game to tournament host UC San Diego 9-6 Feb. 10. Earlier in the day, Long Beach beat Big

LBSU Athletics

Junior utility Maria Eleni Mimidi attempts a throw against UC San Diego Feb. 10.

West foe Cal State Northridge 10-4.

Long Beach started the UCSD tournament 1-1 Feb. 9, as it fell to Loyola Marymount 10-9 before bouncing back to beat

Pomona-Pitzer 17-8, earning its first win of the 2019 season.

“Obviously you want to finish as high you can [in a tournament], but I think it

was a blessing in disguise to get some leveled teams to get into the battle of winning and losing,” Arroyo said.

Freshman attacker Orsi Hertzka totaled 16 goals for the UCSD Tournament and currently leads Long Beach with 23 goals.

“She’s from Hungary and she’s the captain of their 20-and under team,” Arroyo said. “For her, it’s about getting her as comfortable as possible with living in a different country. She’s definitely pretty special and she’s going to help us a lot.”

Another freshman that has stepped up her play for Long Beach is Sarah Barker, whose position is listed as defender, but plays center.

Arroyo said playing the center position is difficult to play in water polo and compared it to playing the quarterback position in football.

“She’s had a great couple weeks of practice,” Arroyo said. “She’s more than capable of doing great things for us along the way.”

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10 SPORTS

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2019 | DAILY49ER.COM | SPORTSD49ER@GMAIL.COM

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Long Beach has hopes of heating up

By Mark Lindahl Staff Writer

The Long Beach State women’s basketball team will make a 50-mile drive north to take on its local foe, the Matadors of Cal State Northridge in a Big West conference showdown Thursday.

After dropping its last two games, Long Beach (7-17, 4-7 Big West) is currently locked into sixth place in conference, and looking to move up in the standings against second seeded CSUN (13-12, 7-4 Big West).

In the last battle between these two squads at the Walter Pyramid, the 49ers were unable to get any sort of rhythm going as they lost 51-37.

The Beach shot a lowly 21.3 percent from the field, something that needs to addressed, as the 49ers haven’t shot above 35 percent from the field in the last three games.

This was largely in part because of the Matadors’ two bigs patrolling the paint,

junior Lauren Shymkewicz and senior Channon Fluker, denying the 49ers clean looks the whole game.

“Northridge does a good job with their big line up of forcing you to take perimeter shots,” head coach Jeff Cammon said.

If the 49ers can work the ball inside by using the devastating handles of sophomore Shanaijah Davison, straight line drives and knack for distributing by freshman Justina King, and sharp-shooting by sophomore forward Naomi Hunt, the 49ers have a good chance to rewrite the storyline of their season.

“We have to be more comfortable and aggressive attacking the basket,” Cammon said. “We got to do a better job of getting to the free throw line and putting a little bit more pressure.”

UC Riverside is currently two wins ahead of Long Beach, and a win over CSUN would put the team in reaching distance of securing a top four seed in the Big West conference, locking up a first round bye in the tournament.

AUSTIN BRUMBLAY | Daily 49er

Sophomore guard Shanaijah Davison dribbles against Hawai’i Feb. 9.

TENNIS

49ers look to extend its undefeated season on the road Tennis has two road games against San Francisco and Saint Mary’s before coming home to take on San Diego.

By Manuel Valladares Staff Writer

Long Beach State women’s tennis team is on a four-game win streak and looking to continue the momentum in its upcoming road trip. The 49ers will be heading up north to face San Francisco University and Saint Mary’s College Saturday.

Their first stop on the road will be Friday where they’ll face USF (5-2), with its most recent win came against Cal Poly Pomona.

San Francisco’s team has been successful this season with

all but one player having a winning singles record. It will be a tough outing for a 49ers, who have three players with losing records.

One of these players, Dominique Meyer, has shown the most potential to change her luck going into the weekend.

“Dominique is playing well and unfortunately, she has not been able to finish her singles matches due to the clinch, clinch rule,” head coach Jenny Hilt-Costello said.

The “clinch, clinch” rule ends the entire game once a team has won a majority of its matches. Unfortunately for Meyer, the adopted method has stopped two solid runs where she was ahead of her opponent.

A competitive outing in San Francisco will lead them to a

less demanding game against Saint Mary’s. The Gaels currently hold a 1-4 record, with their single win coming against Fresno State University.

The 49ers have a great chance of winning the doubles point, with the Gaels having lost four of their last five.

If all goes as planned, the road to a victory is simple, with the 49ers just three singles wins away from winning the game. Players such as freshman Wiktoria Rutkowska and junior Natalia Munoz make this task feasible, with the pair having won three of their last four singles matches.

Looking to stay undefeated, the 49ers have a noon match Friday against the University of San Francisco.

SPORTS 11

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2019 | DAILY49ER.COM | SPORTSD49ER@GMAIL.COM

AUSTIN BRUMBLAY | Daily 49er

Junior pitcher Kellie White pitches against Army Wednesday. Long Beach is 5-5 to start the season after defeating Army 4-2.

SOFTBALL

Long Beach softball takes down Army A pair of home runs by Jamie Wren and Justine Briones assist in the win.

By Sierra Martinez

Assistant Sports Editor MistJournalist

A rip over the right center fence by Jamie Wren brought in Nichole Fry and ignited the offense for the 49ers, bringing in two runs in the third inning and sealing the win. Long Beach State softball defeated Army 4-2 in front of a small crowd of 184 Wednesday morning.

“The last game we played we had to dig deep and find a way to win, so now that we got that win out of the way we can keep digging,” sophomore catcher Justine Briones said.

Unlike its second game against Oregon State, Long Beach struggled to put runs on the board right away. In the first inning, Fry

dropped a blooper into left field earning a single, followed by sophomore outfielder Naomi Hernandez who successfully ran out the throw from a chop to the shortstop.

Wren laid down a sacrifice bunt, moving Fry and Hernandez over, but the two were left on base once the inning ended.

The second inning saw Army sophomore catcher Ally Snelling and freshman designated player Madi Gilmore on base from singles, but Long Beach junior pitcher Kellie White hit her spots and struck out sophomore infielder Taylor Livingston with a changeup to end Army’s ups.

Long Beach attacked with a single from junior infielder Sydney McCollum, but the 49ers were unable to bring her home.

Fry came through with a second blooper into left center in the bottom of the third inning.

A smash by Wren sailed over the fence

and brought in Fry, bringing the score to 2-0.

“I felt like I needed to throw my hands out there and get a base hit and it just happened to go over,” Wren said.

The 49ers added to their score in the fourth inning, when Briones got on base with a grounder, and was switched out with senior pinch runner Jessica Nogosek.

Freshman outfielder Maddie Ruffin stepped up and squeezed a grounder in the gap between first and second. A third blooper from Fry fell into shallow right center and resulted in an RBI after bringing in Nogosek.

Army retaliated in the 6th inning when leadoff senior outfielder Izzy Gates was walked. Freshman outfielder Bianca Gonzales hit a shot to left center earning a double.

The team finally scored when sophomore pitcher Taylor Drayton was thrown out on a

grounder and Gates found her way to home plate from third.

Briones put the last nail in the coffin when she launched a homer over the left field fence in the 6th inning, earning her second home run of the season.

In the seventh inning, Army made an attempt to catch up when senior infielder Carrie Reilly sent the ball to center field, bringing in a run. The 49ers defense carried out three outs and brought the game to an end.

“I thought it could have been a little bit better, but we got the win and I was happy that we didn’t settle,” head coach Kim Sowder said.

Long Beach plays next 8:30 p.m. Thursday against Texas Tech the first day of the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in Palm Springs.

12 SPORTS

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2019 | DAILY49ER.COM | SPORTSD49ER@GMAIL.COM

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Northridge gets Book’d Senior Deishuan Booker saves Long Beach with last second free throws.

By Alex Manfredi

Deputy Sports Editor alexmanfr3di

AUSTIN BRUMBLAY | Daily 49er Senior guard Deishuan Booker goes up for a contested layup Wednesday against Northridge. The 49ers beat the Matadors on game-winning free-throws.

Redshirt senior guard Bryan Alberts caught fire from deep, senior point guard Deishuan Booker got into the paint, drew fouls and the 49ers were able to squeak out a victory over Northridge in the final seconds. Booker gave Long Beach the 80-78 win after drawing a foul on a three point attempt and making all three free throws to ice the game. Booker is currently leading the nation in free throws made with 206 total.

A quiet crowd of 1,848 didn’t have much to cheer for until the 10 minute mark in the second half of Long Beach State’s (10-18, 4-8 Big West) win Wednesday night. After one of its worst 30 minute offensive stretches of the season, Long Beach found victory.

“Obviously we made that one interesting to say the least,” head coach Dan Monson said. “I’ve been in a lot of games over the last 30 years and that one was as difficult of a win.”

Throughout most of the night, Long Beach looked destined to lose the game. No matter what type of shot it took, the 49ers couldn’t find a way to put the ball in the basket.

Long Beach shot 35 percent to Northridge’s 50. The Matadors had more energy all night, but that all changed with under 10 minutes left, as the 49ers found ways to score behind four threes from Alberts and 18 second half points from Booker.

Alberts and Booker both finished with 20 points each. Long Beach also got 15 points from sophomore guard Jordan Roberts. After missing the last game at UC Davis, Alberts returned Tuesday after being gone for a week in Europe due

to the death of a family member.

“It felt good coming back to this family here,” Alberts said.

“They believed in me, even though I was gone for a little, so I just took advantage of that.”

In practice, the team made it a focus to come out with intensity and establish a defensive presence.

In the first half, the 49ers came out exactly how they said they wouldn’t leading up to the matchup.

Long Beach started the game shooting 6-for-24, while being unable to get the job done on the defensive end either.

Northridge jumped out to an early lead behind interior buckets from redshirt freshman Lamine Diane and three pointers from junior Rocket Henderson Jr. and sophomore Terrell Gomez. Henderson Jr. led all scorers at with 11 points, while Roberts led the 49ers with eight points. At halftime, Long Beach trailed 42-31.

“I challenged them as competitors and their character of who we are,” Monson said. “It was a defining moment that we needed to change. I’m proud of our guys for being able to flip the script.”

Throughout the first 10 minutes of the second half, it appeared the 49ers were the same team they were in the first, with little intensity and missed shots. Then Alberts took over, Booker woke up and the 49ers cut the Matadors’ lead down to two points with two minutes to play.

In crunch time, Long Beach was able to capitalize at the free throw line and get timely baskets from Booker.

On the final play, Booker sold the foul on a final three-point attempt to win the game and ended up making all three free throws.

Next up for Long Beach is a 5 p.m. matchup Saturday at UC Riverside. The Highlanders are currently 3-8 in Big West play.