Long Beach State women's basketball faces Oregon in NIT

LONG BEACH >> The Long Beach State women’s basketball team will travel to Oregon tonight at 6 to face the Ducks in a first-round women’s National Invitation Touament game. It’s the third time in four years that the 49ers (24-8) have qualified for a postseason touament for coach Jody Wy.

Oregon (20-10) finished sixth in the Pac-12 and lost in the first round of the conference touament. The Ducks are without All-American Jillian Alleyne, who averaged 19 points and 13.6 rebounds per game. She has a knee injury. Freshman guard Maite Cazorla is averaging 11.4 points and 5.5 assists per outing.

This is Long Beach’s first 24-win season since 1990-91.

Baseball

Today kicks off a four-game series at Blair Field between the Dirtbags (11-5) and visiting Columbia (2-5). Columbia is led by Will Savage, who is hitting a team-high .385 with an impressive .500 on-base percentage. The Lions pitchers have struggled so far this season with a 6.56 team ERA. Their three weekend starting pitchers have combined to give up 28 eaed runs in 29.1 iings pitched. Tonight’s first pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. They retu to Blair Field on Friday at 6 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.

Softball

The San Diego Classic II this weekend is the last nonconference touament of the season for the 49ers (11-8). They will play five games in three days, starting with Wednesday’s doubleheader against BYU and then Ohio State. The marquee game will be Friday at 2 p.m. against No. 22 Fresno State. The Bulldogs (15-6-1) started the season on a 10-game wiing streak and are led by a phenomenal pitching staff. Ace Jill Compton is 8-2 with a 1.79 ERA in 74 iings pitched. She also has 56 strikeouts.

Men’s volleyball

The No. 2-ranked 49ers (18-3) are back in The Walter Pyramid on Friday at 7 p.m. to face No. 11 Cal State Northridge. They will then visit CSUN (12-9) on Saturday night at the same time. Junior Jakub Ciesla leads the Matadors with 3.72 kills per set. Long Beach State freshman setter Josh Tuaniga is currently ranked No. 4 in the nation with an average of 11.19 assists per set. Fellow freshman T.J. DeFalco is seventh with 4.35 kills per set.

Women’s water polo

The No. 21-ranked 49ers will be under the lights at Ken Lindgren Aquatics Center Wednesday night at 7 p.m. when they host Bucknell (9-10). Bucknell has dropped five of its last six games and is led by Eleanor Marrs and Haah Sunday, who both have 42 goals this season. That’s almost half of Bucknell’s offensive output.

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Women’s teis

The 49ers (7-4, 3-0 Big West) will play to Wyoming in their seventh consecutive match at Rhodes Teis Center Wednesday at 2 p.m. Wyoming (7-7) is on a six-game road trip and has dropped three consecutive matches. Junior Laura Eales was named the Big West Women’s teis Athlete of the Week. Eales picked up a pair of singles victories in matches against nationally ranked opponents.

- JJ Fiddler contributed to this report