Pre Season Record: 12-7; Series Record: 9-3
End of Season Standing: 6th Southwest College Open Regionals eliminated in the 2nd backdoor bracket Quarterfinal to UC-San Diego
Recent History:
The ultimate program at Cal State University Long Beach is very young, and has risen quickly up the totem pole in the Southern California Section. The Stalkers first competed in Sectionals in 2006 and were Sectional Champions by 2010. CSULB had a very successful 2010 campaign including victories over Nationals qualifiers UCSD, UC-Santa Barbara, and Kansas.
In 2010, The Stalkers went into Southwest Regionals short of playmakers Sean Fischer and Ryan Morck, both of whom couldn’t make the trip to Colorado. An injury plagued tournament left the Stalker’s shorthanded when it counted. After losing a Semifinal game to UCSB, Long Beach lost their next two backdoor bracket games. After the high of wining Sectionals, Long Beach was left disappointed by their performance at Regionals.
Roster Turnover and Offseason Club Experience:
CSULB only graduated three players, starting handler Daniel Davisson, 6’7’’ cutter Jacob Baumer, and Keegan Conway. Many Long Beach players were involved in Southern California club ultimate during the summer. The Stalkers contributed a line’s worth of players to the Orange County based The 405 and a few other players to the Santa Barbara Condors.
Strategy:
Long Beach is too young of a program to have a long standing history of using one strategy. In the spring of 2010, the Stalkers ran a tight vertical stack allowing their handlers to move the disc quickly and take deep shots from power positions. On defense, they tend to run man defense in low wind conditions and a trapping zone with height in the cup in windy conditions.
Fall 2010:
Long Beach only attended one fall tournament with their A-team, the Sean Ryan Memorial Tournament. At Sean Ryan they lost their pool in a tough game to Stanford (10-14) and were eliminated in a very close quarterfinal to the eventual champions UC-Santa Cruz (10-12).
2011 Schedule:
Long Beach will be attending Santa Barbara Invite, Stanford Open, Pres Day Open and hopefully Centex
2011 Outlook:
Long Beach is not short of bulletin board material in 2011. In addition to the bitter taste of 2010 regionals, CSULB was left out of both the Presidents Day Invitational and the Stanford Invitational. The fact that these tournaments are hosted by teams that are in the Stalkers’ region should provide them with all the motivation they need to have a strong postseason in 2011.
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