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Just when furrowed brows and frowns seemed to be the 49er uniform of the day, the two lead ponies in the fall sporting steeplechase brought smiles to the faithful. In town, the never-nervous Long Beach State freshmen gave a rocket start to the women’s volleyball season - winning all four of their Baden Classic contests - and on the road, the rebuilding Beach soccer team booted not one but two ranked foes.

With what Coach Brian Gimmillaro called a wonderful crowd, (“Gee it was great to see so many people really cheering for us”) Saturday night drew 1,300 with passionate performances by the 49er Pep Band, cheerleaders and yes, the hardly unpacked students.  The adversary, who had just edged LBSU out of the Top 25, was Saint Mary’s - a cool and efficient side that was just a side out away from winning three games in the NCAA tourney last year. They were 25th. They won’t be next week when the AVCA pollsters look at the weekend results and likely boost the Beach into the rankings, hopefully for a season-long stay.

After ho-hum wins over Rutgers, Sacred Heart and UNLV, the marquee matchup was finally on and with LB’s fist-pumping head coach working the sidelines down went Saint Mary's 25-21, 25-27, 25-16, 26-28, 15-7.  Expected star junior Caitlin Ledoux led the 49er offense with 26 kills on .308 hitting, but unexpected star Janisa Johnson added 21 kills, the same as 6-7 Magician in the Middle Haleigh Hampton. Both had double-doubles - Johnson finished the match with 26 digs while Hampton had 12 total blocks.  The difference was that in the media guide the almost 5-9 around 100 pounder Johnson  (just three matches last year) was a key member of the Wilson bowling club in high school while Hampton was touring the world with various USA Junior national volleyball teams.  Two other newcomers, 17-year old setter Ashley Vazquez and outsider hitter Delainey Aigner-Swesey also sparkled.  Vazquez is the emergency fill-In at quarterback for the other Ashley, All-Conference setter Ashley Lee, who is still sporting those taped fingers awaiting clearance from the doctors. Delainey meanwhile came out of the same Serrano High prep pipeline as Ledoux and at 6-1 seems on the track to be a future force.

Outside and deep in the heart, the Long Beach soccer team bookended a win over #21 Washington State 2-1 on Friday with a 2-1 victory over #16 Virginia Tech Sunday morning at in the Texas A&M Aggieland Invitational Tournament. LB improved to 3-1-0, and drew praise from their head coach.  "These two wins are huge for the confidence of our team and obviously for our program," 49er head coach Mauricio Ingrassia said. "I am happy and proud for our kids but I also realize there is a lot of season left. We will celebrate today but we'll be back to work tomorrow to get ready for our home games this weekend. We're excited to play in front of our fans."   The stat queen continues to be Sophomore Nadia Link who has now tallied four goals over the last three games.  Meanwhile while the soccer team departs Texas to make room for the Beach volleyballers who go to Austin for games against Florida A&M and Texas soccer has two home matches, this Friday against Utah State at 4:30 p.m. and hosting the Hornets of Sacramento State Sunday.

When the dust settled it was a six-win weekend for the Beach, and perhaps the falling confetti somewhat obscured the chat of conference shake-ups, the dismal condition of the CSULB athletic budget, and the student’s constant car crawl looking for a parking space in the first week of classes.

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