49ers Relish Their Prospects Long Beach State Focuses On Final Four In Spokane

Spokane in mid-December? It sounds like the perfect holiday spot for one group of warm-weather dwellers.

“Let’s put it this way,” said Brian Gimmillaro, coach of the No. 2-ranked Long Beach State volleyball team. ‘If you had that ice storm that you had last year on that weekend, it would still be our favorite spot.”

The exact days the 49ers have blocked off are Dec. 18-20, the dates of the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Championship in the Arena.

Long Beach, the defending Big West Conference champion, is coming off a weekend when it swept Cal Poly SLO and Hawaii to improve its record to 20-1 and 10-1 in the conference. The 49ers took over the No. 2 ranking in September after playing two matches at Florida. The 49ers beat the Gators in three games and followed with a five-game loss, which convinced the voters to flip-flop the two in the USA Today/American Volleyball Coaches Association Top 25 poll.

Since then, Long Beach has strung together 11 wins. The 49ers were pushed to five games just once. That was by powerful league rival UC Santa Barbara, which is seventh in the poll.

The University of Idaho travels to Long Beach Thursday.

Gimmillaro, in his 13th season, isn’t the only person in Los Angeles County who’s pushing for a winter trip to Spokane. One of his players, Brandy Barratt, has her own reasons to believe a couple of GEG airline tags hanging from her luggage would be a sweet reward. Barratt, a 6-foot-2 sophomore middle blocker, played her high school ball at Gonzaga Prep.

“Brandy is selling tickets right now. She tells us we have to make it,” Gimmillaro said. “She wants to go home and play in front of her hometown.”

Barratt is a regular reserve in Gimmillaro’s pre-determined rotation. She’s the third middle blocker on the team behind senior Nique Crump and junior Benishe Dillard.

“Brandy Barratt is going to be a big-time player. Before she’s done, she’s going to be one of the good middle blockers in the country,” Gimmillaro said.

Big-time players are the mark of the program. During Gimmillaro’s reign, four 49ers have been named AVCA national player of the year.

Long Beach won the national title in 1989 by defeating Nebraska. In 1993, the 49ers beat Penn State in the championship match. If the four-year pattern holds, 1997 will be Long Beach State’s year.

Last fall, the 49ers were sent to the Central Regional site at Florida and lost to Michigan State in the round of 16.

This year’s team is almost the same, with the exception of fewer injuries and one new starter.

The core begins with junior setter Misty May. The 5-foot-9 junior and last year’s Big West Conference player of the year is regarded as the top setter in the country. A converted high school outside hitter, May also contributes 1.8 kills per game, seventh best in the Big West.

Entering the weekend, the 49ers were making 32.7 percent of their kills, ranking them second in the country behind No. 1 Penn State. Credit the accuracy to Crump. The Mesa, Ariz., hitter led the nation with a .453 attack percentage in 60 games while averaging more than three kills per game.

Dillard, from Kent, Wash., was hitting .408 with 2.5 kills per game. Senior Jenn Snyder is Long Beach’s most dangerous outside hitter. The 1996 transfer from Arizona State leads the team with 3.1 kills per game.

“We’re working toward the Final Four and we use every game as a preparation for that,” Snyder said.

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