Women's Soccer- Women's Soccer Hosts First Ever Alumni Game
Over the weekend, Long Beach City College women's soccer hosted its first alumni game in its storied history. Players that helped build the legacy at LBCC, returned to face the current team, who's trying to write their own history. On a day that was highly anticipated by those involved, it lived up to the expectations and more.
It has been a long-awaited event for the Long Beach City College women's soccer program. With all of its history and success, the desire to reunite and relive some of those memories has been strong. Together with former player Sarah Phillips, head coach Eduardo Nunes put together an event that brought back players from as far back as 1992 such as players that won Conference titles, State titles, and National Championships.
The game's honoree was the program's most successful coach, Mauricio Ingrassia. While at LBCC, he led the program to a record of 184-24-8 in his seven seasons. Mauricio was someone that inspired, current coach, Eduardo Nunes into pursuing a coaching career.
"Mauricio not only inspired me, but has been a mentor for me in my career," said Nunes. "This game was an opportunity for me to bring back these inspirational and successful people to honor their achievement, but also to remind the current team of the tradition they represent."
The game started off with an early goal for the alumni. Although many of the alumni still play, they don't necessarily play together. The alumni quickly showed the new team why they were so successful. A display of talent, grit and team chemistry was on show for the new team to see.
Nunes stated, "It's exactly what I wanted. I needed my team to see this and I hope it left an impression."
The lesson may have come quicker than expected. In the second half, the current Vikings scored two late goals to win the match 2-1.
After the final whistle, the teams shook hands and came together for pictures. The alumni spoke to the new team about their time at LBCC and their love for the program.
"My hopes for this event all came to fruition", said Nunes. "I couldn't have hoped for a better inaugural alumni game and will look to not only continue the new tradition, but to build it even bigger."
The Vikings will play in their first game on Wednesday, Sept. 4 at 3 p.m. To view the rest of the schedule, click here.
Men's Soccer- Men's Soccer Takes Down Southwestern 4-2 in Season Opener
The Long Beach City College men's soccer team opened the 2019 season with a 4-2 win against the Southwestern College Jaguars on Friday afternoon at the LBCC Soccer Field.
Freshman forward Cameran Badal scored the first goal for the Vikings with the assist from sophomore midfielder Sergio Flores within the first two minutes of the game. Then in the second half, Badal scored his second goal with help from freshman forward Alejandro Galvan and freshman midfielder Louis Arellano.
The Jaguars then pushed back with their first goal with 34 minutes left in the game. The Vikings held their offensive momentum as Arellano scored six minutes later to extend the Vikings' lead 3-1.
Southwestern had one more in them and slammed one in the bottom corner to only trail by one goal. With two minutes left on the clock, Galvan put on more in the back of the Jaguars' net for the Vikings to seal the 4-2 victory.
Freshman goalkeeper Oliver Juarez totaled five saves for the Vikings and Long Beach men's soccer will return to the field today at Pasadena City College at 2 p.m. To see the remainder of the men's soccer schedule, click here.
Women's Volleyball- Long Beach Splits Quad Against Palomar and San Diego Mesa
The Long Beach City College women's volleyball team hosted Palomar College and San Diego Mesa College in the LBCC Quad Tournament on Friday afternoon in the Building Q Gym. In the first game against Palomar, the Vikings swept the Comets with thee 3-0 win, but then fell to San Diego Mesa 3-1 in the second game of the day.
In the first game against Palomar, freshman outside hitter Callissa Candalot shined at the net by totaling 13 powerful kills against the Comets. Sophomore outside hitter Anisa Lopez was up next with 11 kills and had a .647 kill percentage for the Vikings. Freshman setter Jillian Petnicki was consistent as she led with 35 assists and had one service ace against Palomar.
The Vikings finalized the win against the Comets with set scores of 25-12, 25-17 and 25-13.
Against San Diego Mesa, the Vikings took the first set 25-19, but then fell to the Olympians 15-25, 21-25 and 12-25.
Petnicki shined again with 22 assists and held a .308 kill percentage against the Olympians. Sophomore libero Doris Woods was on fire as she totaled two service aces and 19 digs for the Vikings. Freshman middle Rachael Street was also was an asset on the court by leading the team with 10 total points.
The Long Beach City College women's volleyball team will play again on Wednesday, Sept. 4 at Riverside City College at 5 p.m.
To view the remaining schedule, click here.
Cross Country- Zavala Places First in Tour de Cuesta
On Friday afternoon, the men's and women's cross country teams competed in their first race of the 2019 season in the Tour de Cuesta held at the Fairbanks Cross Country Course hosted by Cuesta College. The women's team placed fourth overall, while the men's team took home second place.
For the men's team, sophomore Donovan Zavala opened the season with a top podium finish and brought home the gold medal with a 22:44.0 time in the 4-mile run. Freshman Jonathan Ruiz rounded out the podium with a third-place finish with a time of 23:11.30.
On the women's side, sophomore Dasani Zavala was the top finisher for the Vikings in eighth place with 22:05.40 time in the 5K run. Freshman Amaya Ferris was right behind Zavala in twelfth place with a 22:26.10 time.
The Vikings cross country teams will race again on Friday, Sept. 13 at the SoCal Preview at Mission Bay Park hosted by Cuyamaca College at 10:15 a.m. To view the rest of season schedule, click here.