Long Beach State senior Michael Chen wins Del Walker Classic

LONG BEACH >> Long Beach State senior Michael Chen used a 1-under par round of 69 in Tuesday’s final round of the 20th Del Walker Intercollegiate Golf Classic at Virginia Country Club to capture individual medalist honors and lead the host 49ers to a second-place finish.

Chen carded an eagle, two birdies and 12 pars while making just two bogeys to win by six shots over two players tied for second for his first career touament win. The senior from Taipei, Taiwan completed the two-day, 54-hole touament at 9-under 201, and he was the only player to shoot every round under par.

Long Beach State finished just one shot behind team champion Cal Poly (-2) with a final-round 281 to finish with a 1-under 839.

“It feels great to win,” Chen said. “I’ve always been looking forward to this moment and today I finally got a chance to prove myself. So,I felt pretty good.

“The course last two days has always been pure. I mean, you can’t really ask for much when you have this pure course out here. After this touament win, I now have more confidence about my game than ever before.”

Women’s basketball

It’s senior night for the 49ers as they host UC Davis Thursday at 7 p.m., and lone senior Chantel Dooley will be honored for her five years with the team. Unfortunately, she’ll do it from the sidelines after she suffered another knee injury last week.

The Aggies (16-11, 9-5) are just one game back of Big West second-place Long Beach State and lost to the 49ers at home, 75-62, in January. It was the 49ers’ first win at UC Davis since 2009, as junior Aa Kim led Long Beach State with a season-high 18 points.

Men’s volleyball

The No. 1-ranked 49ers got all of the first-place in the AVCA coaches poll this week and they’ll be in Pesylvania this weekend for two games against Pe State. The No. 6 Nittany Lions (12-2) is riding an 11-game wiing streak and has eight sweep victories while only going to a fifth set twice this season. Junior outside hitter Chris Nugent has 193 kills (4.20 kills per set), which ranks eighth in the nation.

Dirtbags

For the third straight weekend the Dirtbags are hosting a three-game set against a quality nonconference opponent. Nebraska (2-4) is coming to Blair Field with junior Ryan Boldt, who was named to USA Baseball’s preseason Golden Spikes Award watch list this month. The outfielder is ranked as the No. 13 college prospect for the 2016 MLB Draft by Baseball America.

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Last year, Boldt led the Huskers in average (.344), hits (75), runs (45) and stolen bases (9) as the leadoff hitter.

The two teams will play at 6 p.m. on Friday, 2 p.m. on Saturday and 11:30 a.m. on Sunday.

Women’s teis

Maeva Razakasoa, ranked No. 57 in NCAA Division I, was named the Big West Conference Women’s Teis Athlete of the Week on Wednesday.

The junior won both of her singles and doubles matches last week in wins over UC Irvine and San Diego State. It’s the first weekly award of the season for Long Beach State and the thrid of Razakasoa’s career. She has now won an Athlete of the Week honor in each of her three seasons at the Beach, wiing on Jan. 22, 2014 and Jan. 21, 2015.

Long Beach State retus to the court on Friday with a 2 p.m. battle with Sacramento State, then again on Saturday to face UC Davis at 11 a.m.

Beach volleyball

The season-opening Pepperdine Invitational touament at Zuma Beach this weekend will let the No. 4 preseason-ranked 49ers know where they stand. Long Beach State will take on host No. 2 Pepperdine on Saturday moing before facing No. 6 UCLA. Then on Sunday, the 49ers will go up against No. 3 Hawaii before finishing the weekend with a match against No. 1 USC, the defending national champions.

—JJ Fiddler contributed to this report

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