49ers Look to Win Two to Get to First NCAAs
Beach Open Up with Cal Poly in First Round of Big West Tournament

November 6, 2007

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TOURNAMENT HEADQUARTERS AT CS FULLERTON

TWO WINS AWAY FROM THE NCAAs
The 49ers (13-6-0, 6-2-0 Big West), a win away from the school-record they tied last year, will be the second seed at the Big West Tournament at CS Fullerton after tying the Titans for the Big West title. LBSU will open up play against third-seeded Cal Poly (7-9-2, 5-2-1 Big West) on Friday at 5 p.m., while top-seeded CS Fullerton (11-7-1, 6-2-0 Big West) will host fourth-seeded UC Irvine (11-6-2, 5-2-1 Big West). Both teams received higher seeds based on their respective head-to-head meetings. LBSU has won seven of nine heading into the tournament, winning their second consecutive Big West title with wins over Cal Poly and UCSB over the weekend. The winner of the tournament will receive the automatic bid for the NCAA?Tournament, which the 49ers, despite a 26-10-4 from 2005-06 were left out of after losing in the first round of the conference tournament in each of the last two years. Seeding for the NCAA Tournament will be announced at 5 p.m. on November 12, with all-conference awards announced on November 13.

A LOOK AT THE TOURNAMENT FIELD
RANKING WITHIN THE CONFERENCE: The 49ers rank first in points and goals this season, while UC Irvine is second and CS Fullerton is third... Cal Poly is last in the league in scoring... on the defensive end, UC Irvine and LBSU lead the pack, while CS Fullerton rank fifth and Cal Poly sixth.

PLAYERS TO WATCH: LBSU’s Kim Silos (23 points) and Kristen Kiefer (17 points) are two of the top three point scorers in the conference, followed by Fullerton’s Lauren Cram (14) and Stacey Thompson (13).... Kiefer and Silos are also 2-3 in scoring in the conference... UC Irvine’s Caty Cope leads the conference with 10 assists, while Silos has nine... in goal Danielle de Seriere has a league-best 0.56 goals against average for UCI, followed by LBSU’s Liz Ramos (0.73) and CS Fullerton’s Shayla Sabin (0.82).
STREAKS: Cal Poly went 0-1-1 this last weekend after winning their six previous matches... despite losing to No. 20 San Diego to close out the season, the Titans won their final five conference matches, going 5-1-0 over their last six... UC Irvine split its final week of play and is 5-1-1 over its last seven.

AT THE HELM
The 49ers quick emergence as a regional and national threat has come at the hands and feet of Head Coach Mauricio Ingrassia. Ingrassia, who has gone 45-25-7 over three-plus seasons, has brought in three top-40 recruiting classes, including the 15th-best class in the nation in 2005. That class, now juniors, is the core of this year’s team. Ingrassia previously won five state titles at nearby Long Beach City College, the most of any California coach. He finished his LBCC career winning the last 55 in a row.

IN THE TOP-25
Prior to Mauricio Ingrassia’s arrival, the 49ers were never in the regional polls, let alone the national polls. This year’s team for the second straight year was ranked in the top-30 to start the year, ranking a pre-season high of No. 25 in Soccer Buzz’ annual poll. The 49ers were as high as No. 21 last season. The team’s No. 8 regional ranking was one spot away from the program’s best mark, set last year.

SILOS NAMED WEEK’S BEST
Long Beach State forward Kim Silos (Ontario) was named the Big West’s Player of the Week for the second time this season after scoring a goal and adding two assists for the Big West Champion 49ers this past week. Silos scored the first of two goals in Sunday's 2-1 victory over UC Santa Barbara and tallied assists in both matches. Silos leads the Big West in overall points with 23, tallying seven goals and nine assists. Her nine assists in 18 matches ranks 19th nationally.

BATTLE AND BRUISED BUT STILL AT THE TOP
The 49ers have been rackled by injuries this season, losing starting defenders Julie Megorden (knee) and Tiffany Vaught (leg) for the season, while also losing starting forward Kristen Kiefer (ankle), starting defender Grace Shevlin (ankle) and goalkeeper Liz Ramos (leg) for a couple of weeks each during the conference season. That trio is healthy again.

RACKING UP THE WINS
The 49ers have accumulated 39 wins over the last three years, putting together the three highest win totals in school-history, 12 in 2006 (12-5-3), 14 last season (14-5-1) and 13 in 2007. The 5-1-1 record in confence tied the school-record for wins in 2006, while this year’s mark of 6-2-0 broke it.

TOUGH STRETCH PAYS OFF
The 49ers opened up the season with four of their first five games against NCAA Tournament teams. Though they went just 1-3, LBSU dropped consecutive one-goal matches at then No. 24 Wake Forest (1-0), No. 20 Clemson (2-1) and No. 24 BYU (1-0) over a six-day stretch. Five of the team’s six losses have been by a single goal. The other loss was to now 11-2-2 USC, 3-0.

SCORING RECORD BROKEN
The 49ers broke the school-record for scoring this past weekend, and come into the tournament with 37 goals this season. LBSU has tallied five goals three times this season, nearly as many times then they had in nine years previously (4).

NO, YOU WIN IT, NO, YOU TAKE IT
This season LBSU has had nine players score the game winning goal this season. The team’s democratic scoring has watched 13 players score at least one goal this season. KimSilos leads the team with seven goals, followed by Kristen Kiefer with six and Hayley Bolt and Nikki Myers with four goals a piece.

GETTING HEALTHY AGAIN
The 49ers are back to full strength after forward Kristen Kiefer, defender Grace Shevlin and goalkeeper Liz Ramos all healed from various injuries that have kept them out for an extended period of time. The 49ers have lost two players to injury for the season, defender Julie Megorden (knee) and defender Tiffany Vaught (leg).