The562’s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2022-23 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl.
Photo Courtesy LBSU SID
Long Beach State freshman golfer Jasmine Leovao set a program record last week while winning the Big West Conference individual title at Spanish Trail Country Club in Las Vegas.
Leovao’s 6-under par opening round of 66 is the lowest round ever for the Beach at the Big West Championship. She finished the tournament with a 216 total over 54 holes, and her even-par score was the best of the tournament by three strokes.
LBSU teammate Hannah Ko finished third after a strong finishing round of 74. The Beach finished second as a team behind champions Cal Poly.
Leovao, who also earned an automatic bid into the NCAA Regional Round, is the fifth different LBSU golfer in the last 16 years to win the individual conference title. She joins Kay Hoey (2007), Jennifer Yu (2018), Haley Tygret (2019) and Holland Shourds (2021) as the only individual champions in program history.
WOMEN’S TENNIS
Coach Jenny Hilt-Costello earned her 400th career win last week when the Beach edged UC Davis 4-3 in the regular season finale. Hilt-Costello is 18-0 against UC Davis in her career, and the Beach has only lost to the Aggies once in 1993.
The Beach (10-9, 6-3) could be part of a five-way tie in the conference standings headed into the Big West Tournament April 26-29 at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego.
“This was a strong conference road win for us in difficult circumstances,” Hilt-Costello said. “We didn’t play our best tennis, but we found a way to win.”
The match came down to No. 4 Mathilde Tranberg bouncing back for the Beach and winning a gritty 7-5 third set.
SOFTBALL
LBSU (23-20, 13-5) won another Big West series at Cal Poly last weekend, but slipped into second place in the conference behind Cal State Fullerton after a loss on Sunday.
Once again, the Beach was phenomenal in the circle as Shannon Haddad (7 IP, H, ER, 3 K, 3 BB) picked up her 10th win of the season in the first game on Saturday, and then Sophia Fernandez tossed a complete game three-hit shutout in the second game.
The Beach have weekend trips to Hawaii and Bakersfield before the season ending series against Fullerton in Long Beach May 12-13.
BASEBALL
The Dirtbags are officially on the schneid after getting swept in a Big West Conference series at Hawaii last weekend. LBSU (22-15, 9-9) fell from fourth to sixth place in the conference with 18 games left in the season.
LBSU has lost six of its last eight games, and haven’t been as potent offensively with just six runs in the last three games.
The Dirtbags are in Reno this weekend for non-conference games against Nevada and Grand Canyon.
