2025 Long Beach State Men’s Volleyball: Love Me Again

#GoBeach

Insanity! It’s all over the place, and it’s in the air tonight.

Why should the Bedlam be restricted to Baltic Avenue? It's all over the place. In this entry, I shall prove it.

On a weekend which saw a bus driver overreact in the name of a hairbrained vendetta against me, Long Beach Poly actually lose a game, the Los Angeles Galaxy actually win a game, and my Lakewood Lancers ignore my warning regarding their lead heading into the second half, some of the more craziest action happened in the college football world. More on the latter mentioned later.

First, Michigan. Oh dear. Those Oregon Ducks were riding on the coattails of Appalachian State’s victory. And they just humiliated an already smashed Big House, 39-7. Mike Hart said with his eyes bulging, “We will win next week, I will promise you.” On a weekend that saw Osama Bin Laden make an uncompelling argument about his organization’s motives (on the grounds that he and his Al-Qaeda brothers kill people of his own religion while promoting it to the brainwashed American youth of tomorrow in the name of shortening their already wretched lives), Mike Hart lost the game, lost the Heisman, and now he has lost his mind like Lola at the Copacabana. Barry Manilow, send help!

Meanwhile, the Mountaineers (no, not the guys who have the duo of Slaton and White, I’m talking about Armanti Edwards and the Boone boys) continue on their merry way, dismissing any cover jinx by Sports Illustrated, stomping Lenoir-Rhyne 48-7. Out in Happy Valley, Penn State polished off Notre Dame, setting up a pillow fight of questionable proportions (are there even any?).

Washington defeated Boise State today. We're gonna have to scout them. They will be tough when the end of the season comes.

Out in the prep football world, the Birmingham Patriots (no, they are not from Alabama, they are from Lake Balboa, in Los Angeles) defeat the Poly Jackrabbits, 20-7. So, Birmingham, can you please provide my Lancers (who choked in the 2^nd half against Tesoro, 24-21) some game film so we can study a way to actually beat Poly? Please?

The bedlam all over the southern United States continued. South Carolina is coached by Steve Spurrier, also known as the Ol’ Ball Coach. Which brings up the question: did Georgia even think that they had a chance against the Gamecocks? If they thought “Yes,” then someone out in Columbia deceptively lied to them. South Carolina won Between the Hedges, 16-12.

In Ruston, fans watched a shootout between Hawaii and Louisiana Tech. Colt Brennan, Davone Bess (who had a highlight on SportsCenter) and the guys called for a dogfight from Derek Dooley’s Louisiana Tech Bulldogs, and they got it. While Colt Brennan continued making big plays, it was Gerard Lewis that was clutch when it mattered. His stop of Louisiana Tech’s 2-point conversion that could have won the game increased his stock. I think he will play on Sundays. Hawaii won, 45-44. Lewis should have gotten that pick and sent it back, though, instead of batting it down. He’ll remember to do that next time when the opportunity comes against UNLV.

And South Florida defeated Auburn, 23-20. This was a team that started playing football a few decades ago, and they just beat Auburn, plain and simple. The Beasts from the Big East Conference are coming back.

Someone ring a dinner bell: the Galaxy actually won a game…without David Beckham. They defeated the Colorado Rapids, 3-1. Their season already wrecked, the Galaxy still know how to win. Yo. And at the Walter Pyramid, Long Beach State scalped the Florida State Seminoles in a sweep. It was fun being there. Those of you who saw it unfold, I don't need to explain it. It's all surreal, man.

I think the only thing that went wrong was the attitude of that bus driver. I have seen many annoying people come and go and comeback again, but this bus driver was the worst of them. I put this on the flame wars section of the forum on a club that I am active in, and man, it just became a riot. Although my friends’ colorful rebuttals to my posts lacked any logic, and were just lame attempts to hamfist them, it was in this section, so I had no choice but to take it with a grain of salt.

When I get desensitized to these types of bedlam, and get used to seeing this, I know that I am in America.

Ay, ay, ay.

Brian Gimmillaro. Face the music. And be honest.

Your ladies were not ready for San Diego. I don’t what excuses you have, they know they got their butts beat in a 3-0 sweep, the third game being a farce because they gave up.

I think we have to send out the men’s team the next time we face these maidens, because they deserve to get their comeuppance if we can give it to them.

Live and learn. If they don’t, the Stanford match on Saturday could be over in less than an hour…with minutes to spare. Prepare yourselves.

Aside from the futility, I am proud to say that once again, the Los Angeles Angels have found their winning form, while the Long Beach Armada’s chances of winning the Golden Baseball League title are thrown into oil…turmoil, that is. 4-3 loss, and we are on a losing streak.

Meanwhile, the Angels win, and the El Camino Warriors are picked to win the Mission Conference. Stay tuned for details in the Mayhem blog.

I will look back at the Summer Session II as one that had its ups and downs, but in the end, resulted in the stage being set for The Final Push. In Management 300, I received a B after solid results on three out of four exams (more on the fourth one in a bit), and perfect scored on the team presentation and my portfolio-the non-quiz portion, that is.

The down of that class were the final exam and the quiz portion of the portfolio. First, I’ll talk about the final. Oh man, was that a fast one pulled by my instructor. Let that be a lesson for him not to use the eBook for the final. It’s just an ass-faced way to lower the scores. I couldn’t even get half the questions right. An illiterate, malnourished 1^st-grader from Janjaweed-infested Darfur could get a better score on this one than me…it was THAT bad. 23 out of 50. Some poor, unfortunate, youthful souls would get shot or hanged for showing these results to their parents. That being said, I wasn’t expecting a high score on the quiz portion of the portfolio. 13 out of 20.

Well, at least I got more than half the questions right on that one.

Business Law 320 saw me get another B, and that came from a nice curve from my instructor. Looking at the numbers, the magic number for my final was 32. I ended up getting 38 out of 50 on the final. This was higher than the other two exams (32, 27). This has to be foreign to me, because I don’t usually get a higher grade in the Final than the other exams in my classes, but it seems I did well enough to get a B. Oddly enough, in my junior college Business Law class, I also got a B. This letter seems to be the bane of my existence.

Of course, getting a perfect case brief score (30 out of 50) and a near-perfect group project score (29 out of 30) didn’t hurt, either.

Peter Perbix, a person who directs Disabled Student Services, thought I was crazy to do two classes in one session. I think he will be surprised to find out that it was: been there, done that, and got B’s.

I think my GPA might go down a bit, but not by much. The Fall 2007 semester it at hand.

A couple of dreams to share: I dreamt that Cal Poly was gloating at us because they have a football team, and we didn't.

I also had a dream, actually, a nightmare that one of my superiors at AX, an executive from SPJA named Joyce Lim, was murdered by having her head smashed with a hammer by her ex-spouse. I saw it, and just had to flee. No offense, Joyce, but I saw the hammer, a long one, and I got out of the way, because he didn’t want to smash my head, and the blood just spurted out, SPLOOOOSH! And my heart began to sink.

I think I have to quit viewing Dead Man Eating for while.

A great day to be a yanderekko...

For those of you who don't know what the heck a yanderekko is, that is the term for a cute girl who ends up becoming a hellbent killer. An example of this is Rena Ryuuguu (one of my favorite yanderekkos) from When Cicadas Cry (Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni).

And why is that, one asks? While a number of my local teams won, a number of my local teams also lost today (and yesterday).

I'll go to the teams that failed. Starting with the Galaxy. Now, call what you will, all those "the ball is round" type of talk, but the bottom line is: my LA Galaxy played the type of football that overpaid, pretentious, impotent sportswriters love to rip apart just to get some extra dough. They lost 2-1 to an FC Dallas team that should have been winnable without David Beckham. No excuse for that uncompelling home opener.

Next, the Lakers. Oh dear. How many more losses before you salvage a playoff berth, Phil Jackson? They sunk to .500, losing to Phoenix. I'd rather cheer for the Clippers now. I'll place even money on Phil Jackson and his staff fired if they are eliminated while crashing into the finish line.

Next, the Avengers. Ouch! Ed Hodgkiss, when will you tell you guys to play some defense when it matters most? I mean, I know Arena Football is a high-scoring ordeal-it's a given, and I've actually seen a game during your inaugural season-but come on now. Dropping another one to the Utah Blaze? You can feel the heat now, Hodgie, and it's not coming from Utah...I leave it to you to find that out. Schmuck.

Next, the Angels. While I know Boston will be once again a force to be reckoned with, you gotta tell your guys not to make getting blown out of the water a habit. Baseball, like any sport, has a business side to things. That's why I'm attending classes at the CBA right now...

Finally, Long Beach City College and Long Beach State men's volleyball. I'll get to Alan Knipe's swains last. First, LBCC. Jeez Louise, Randy Totorp! Dropping the match to Santa Monica on the 6th (after looking for the result for over a week)!? You gotta kick butt against Moorpark to get the conference title. The Corsairs might be the ones who take the wheels off you. Unforgivable.
But I'll give you this, Randy: your guys are nowhere near as pathetic as Long Beach State. Ugh, Alan Knipe! Why, oh why, did USA Volleyball hire you to coach the national side at the Pan American Games this summer? It doesn't make sense. Finishing the season on a losing note, getting whitewashed by UC Irvine, of all teams! If this is how your national side will play (and I know they can send the Beach off the face off this war-torn planet if they wanted to), then they've got as good a chance of winning gold as England have a chance of winning the World Cup. USA Volleyball, hire John Speraw for the Olympic run. Please. Or Marv Dunphy. Or Al Scates. Or Bill Ferguson or Mike Wilton. Heck, have your program do an about-face and hire Ryan McGuyre! Anybody but Alan Knipe! For the love of William "Mintonette" Morgan!

I hope I am proven wrong.

Now I go to the good stuff that happened. Anaheim Ducks are now 2-0 on Minnesota Wild, while the Dodgers, LBSU women's tennis, the Dirtbags, and the Las Vegas 51s won. End good stuff. I seem to write more about failure than victory. I suppose I'm falling in with those sportswriters, except for one thing: I'm not paid to blog. And until someone gives me the ability to snap my fingers to take money from someone without them knowing it and letting me get away with it...I like it that way.

Uncontrollable? Coming…

I tried out the love tester at the Claim Jumper after my meal with my sister and her new fiancée. The light pointed to the highest spot, Uncontrollable. I think I need to go through that again. The urge to do so must be felt now. If the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars, then it must be true: I love the color red.

I have nothing but scathing remarks to say about our effort against USC in volleyball. To be honest, they wouldn’t stand a chance against Long Beach City.

I think my voice is coming back. Two weeks! Two frustrating weeks without my voice. Thank god the Fortnight of Silence is now silenced…for now.

The truth about Long Beach Guesthouse...

Well, as the men's basketball team play with nothing to lose down in Ohio, and the Dirtbags go on an expedition to shock Wichita State in awe, the men's volleyball team is hosting the Active Ankle Classic. Interestingly, the secondary sponsor is Long Beach Guesthouse. On the site, they look spic and span.

When I looked at the reviews for the hotel, most reviews were very negative, some were even graphic in their presentation. Could have used a better choice of wording, but the surrealism may add to the fact that it probably wasn't the best choice to be secondary sponsor to the Active Ankle.

Might as well just called it the Active Ankle/Hotel California Invitational instead. Colitas over a played Felder and Walsh riff anyone?

Cal Baptist – No pushover, but it’s the usual business

Cal Baptist – No pushover, but it’s the usual business

By Jo-Ryan Salazar
February 10, 2007

Cal Baptist. Ranked 1st in men’s volleyball in the NAIA. Humph. I will give this for them. They are feisty. Alan Knipe used a 2nd-string lineup, and we were on our toes. Cal Baptist-an NAIA team! I was very impressed by their effort the first game, which we won 30-27. We weren’t going to have an easy one against them. They could sweep Stanford if they could-but they weren’t on their schedule.

Had a little bit easy against the Lancers in the 2nd game. This was going to be another sweep, as expected, but the 3rd game, in typical form, would be elusive at first. I wasn’t crazy when I said the season would be on the line (albeit it was a half-joke). This would count against us if we were to fail tonight. Besides, I wanted to get back to Blair after this.

Eventually, it seemed very apparent that the Lancers would falter again…for the eighth straight time. We would sweep them 3 games to nil.

Off to Blair for me. I was able to watch the last few innings of the game. It went down to the bottom of the ninth. I though, Hmmm, this Texas team should be able to finish things off. Turns out, they wouldn’t. A couple of players hit a pitch plus a walk sent in Bobby McMurray, a JC transfer from Arizona, and Mesa Community College, who drove in two runs on a RBI. The throw to home plate was not in time, and with score tied 6-all, the home fans chanted “Long Beach State! Long Beach State!” and as saw the fans get louder and louder, my eyes panned the atmosphere around me, as if I was Maximum from the movie Gladiator. And my mind said, “Checkmate.” Danny Espinosa, who is my favorite player on this year’s Dirtbags team, drove home the winning run, and I walked out of the park singing EMF’s Unbelievable, possessed by the glory of victory.

It’s not very often we get a win against a team like this. Still early to say, but that loss to the Alumni may have become great motivation for Mike Weathers’ bunch of boys from the Beach.

Hockey night in Long Beach

I just talked with the people from Beachsort Technologies, a fledgling computer science club who are due to get some strong connections, and a bevy of projects on the way. Unfortunately, when I was accompanying the club president with another person, the advisor for the club, who was the Computer Science Department Chair, and a head of the World Wide Web Consortium, slammed the door in our faces when the president wanted to speak with him.
I hope he realized he was speaking to a business student as well. In a business setting, slamming the door on anyone can bring serious damage to relationships with people who you hire, people who want to do business with you, et al. It’s a polite way of giving the finger to someone, and telling them that they will not have any business or relationship with you ever again. I expect an apology from him very soon, because, again, that type of communication brings irreparable damage, no matter how big your plate is. Very unprofessional for someone like him. He should know better.

Anyway, I did say that I will talk about the trip I had to Glacial Garden a Saturday ago. Originally, after the Beach’s women edged UC Irvine in a rare conference win (or any win for that matter), I wanted to go home, but I thought to myself, I’ve got time to watch this game. So, I took the 20’s up to Cherry and Carson, and walked over to the Garden. There was a tryout going on before the main event took place.
Already there was some intensity going on, as a BYU hockey player made a critical mistake of breaking a fiberglass barrier during warm-ups. I hope he knew that this takes a lot of money to replace. So, as the crew replaced it with a wooden barrier, the game was delayed 30 minutes. The shrapnel were sharp, and my right thumb was unlucky to get lacerated. Fortunately, Neosporin and a bandage made it look nonexistent. But those guys will now have to pay for the damage.
A few young girls were selling 5050 raffle tickets. At first, I decided not to, but given that this could be the last Beach hockey game I see this season, I decided to give it a go. 3 tickets for 5 dollars. I ended up being the first number called, and received a $10 gift card from some local Italian restaurant in Lakewood. $5 well spent.
As for the game, it became very tense late in the 2nd period, with goals scored within 20 seconds of each other. It was 3-3, Long Beach over Brigham Young, whose team was called the IceCats. I was laying out every epithet about our incapability to finish. But four unanswered goals in the 3rd period left the home fans happy. I was even happier, because I was able to barely take the bus home, and when I got home, it was already Sunday morning.

I hope the volleyball team wakes up, and dusts Stanford, just like they did at the E-Bar Invitational earlier this year in Santa Barbara. Clap for the Chopman.