The Long Beach State women’s volleyball team will start the second half of its season this weekend when it begins Big West Conference play at UC Santa Barbara.
The 49ers (7-6) will start its attempt to claim the conference title when it takes on the Gauchos and Cal Poly in road games this weekend. LBSU is coming off an up-and-down nonconference season during which it missed several wins by a single point.
“I thought if we scored four points, one in four different games, we would have had one loss,” head coach Brian Gimmillaro said. “That’s difficult. Very difficult. But you get ready for conference. Conference starts now.”
The ‘Niners will start with a clean slate, independent from their five-set losses to No. 11 UCLA, No. 17 Florida State, Miami, Oregon State and Air Force. They will put the first marks on their conference record this weekend at the Thunderdome in Santa Barbara and Mott Gymnasium in San Luis Obispo.
The Big West as a whole has a different look to it this year. Each team returns most of its players, making the conference unusually deep.
“Everybody in conference is better than they were last year,” Gimmillaro said. “So many returning players for every team, so there isn’t one team that was depleted, and so everyone is better.”
The Big West is also a nine-team conference with the departure of Pacific, which left for the West Coast Conference in July. The conference schedule now consists of 16 games instead of 18, but it is still spread out over 10 weeks.
The 49ers have four weekends with only one match.
“We decided, us coaches, to do this, but it’s really spread over one too many weeks,” Gimmillaro said. “If it’s a 10-team conference, which we thought it was going to be, or 11, it would work. But now it’s spread out too much.”
The fewer number of games will also make it harder for teams to overcome slow starts, like the 49ers did last year. LBSU lost two of its first four Big West games but won its last seven to finish in second place in 2012.
The ‘Niners will have an immediate test in conference play when they travel to Santa Barbara Friday. The Gauchos (5-7) didn’t have an outstanding nonconference season, partly because they spent so much of it on the road. Friday’s match will be just their second home game all season.
“It’s tough to play Santa Barbara in a road game to open conference,” Gimmillaro said. “I’m sure [the Gauchos] are excited about being home.”
UCSB is led by senior outside hitter Leah Sully, who has 135 kills for the season. Sully and sophomore libero Taylor Formico were each named to the 2012 All-Big West first team.
Next up for The Beach will be a Saturday match at Cal Poly. The Mustangs (6-7) finished ninth in the Big West in 2012, but they were without star middle blocker Jennifer Keddy, who won the 2011 Big West Player of the Year Award.
Keddy is back on the floor for Cal Poly this year and is leading the team with an average of .68 blocks per set.
Outside hitter Chelsea Hardin leads the Mustangs offensively with 145 kills and a .308 hitting percentage.
Neither Cal Poly nor UCSB have records over .500 so far, but Gimmillaro said that a high ranking isn’t the only predictor of a tough matchup.
“Over the years, certain schools have played very well against us, even if they’re not ranked as highly,” he said. “This week, Santa Barbara is much improved, and we’re going in there, where we won a close match last year.”
The match against the Gauchos will start at 6 p.m. on Friday. The 49ers will then face Cal Poly on Saturday at 7 p.m.