A FRESHMEN FRONT

WINNING GAMES EVEN BEFORE TAKING CLASSES

   Words By Noah Kelly, Campus Page Editor

     The unranked women’s volleyball team went up against #25 ranked St. Mary’s in Saturday’s very evenly matched game. The women’s volleyball team not only closed out St. Mary’s, but also won each game in the Long Beach State Baden Classic series against Sacred Heart, UNLV and Rutgers. St. Mary’s, however, was by far the toughest challenge the women’s team faced this entire weekend.

     After soundly trouncing Sacred Heart earlier in the day, the 49ers headed back onto the court to face St. Mary’s, which was the only ranked team in the series.
      Throughout the best of 5 series (which the 49ers won, 3-2), the score was tied 39 different times, and the lead changed over in a dozen separate instances. The 49ers and St. Mary’s traded wins for the first 4 sets before Long Beach decidedly ended the short 5th set, 15-7. Leading the scoring charts was #1 Caitlin Ledoux, who was also named MVP of the entire Baden Classic series. Behind Ledoux was Haleigh Hampton with 28 points.
      The most awe-invoking aspect of the game was the fact that the 49ers sported 3 true freshmen on their 9-person playing roster. One freshman, Haleigh Hampton, handled her own at the net throughout all 5 sets against St. Mary’s, earning herself 21 kills, 2 solo blocks and 10 block assists. She outnumbered her team in block assists 2-1, which despite her 6’7” height advantage, as a freshman is incredibly impressive. Rounding out the freshmen triforce is Ashley Vazquez and Delainey Aigner-Swesey. While the stat sheet might not flout the skill of Vazquez or Aigner-Swesey, their presence on the court was undeniable in person. If you were to assign each one a nerdy Zelda reference, I’d go with Hampton for the Triforce of Power for her ferocity, Vazquez the Triforce of Courage for her admirable diving saves and Aigner-Swesey the Triforce of Wisdom for knowing where to be at the right time.
      For a program who has won 5 national titles (the current leader in number of wins is Stanford with 6) the 49ers are a young team with a lot of talent and potential. With their victory over St. Mary’s Saturday the 49ers are in prime position to move up into the top 25 in the country. Their next bout is against Florida A&M in the godforsaken state of Texas, so don’t expect any amateur and terrible action photographs from that event.