UNIVERSITY BEAT / LONNIE WHITE : Long Beach’s Start Promising

When Dallas Boychuk took over as the women’s basketball coach at Long Beach State last spring, her task was simple. Return the 49ers to their level of the 1980s and early ‘90s, when the school made 11 consecutive trips to the NCAA tournament, including Final Four appearances in 1987 and 1988.

Led by such standout players as Cindy Brown and Penny Toler, Long Beach State had one of the most feared programs in the nation. But over the last four years, the 49ers have been anything but imposing.

Under Glenn McDonald, who replaced Joan Bonvicini in 1991, Long Beach State finished less than .500 the last three seasons, including last season’s 13-14 team.

“I think the players welcomed the change,” said Boychuk, an assistant at Purdue the last three seasons under Coach Lin Dunn. “They’ve responded pretty well to me and have been working real hard from the very first day.”

With four returning starters, Long Beach State defeated California on Dec. 1 before 1,631 at the Pyramid. It was the 49ers’ first victory over a Pacific 10 Conference school since Dec. 10, 1991.

“That was a very important win for us because it was our first regular-season home game and it was against a solid Pac-10 team,” said Boychuk, who at 30 is one of the youngest head coaches in Division I. “The win was good for the team, and it was good for our program.”

Predicted to finish eighth in a poll of Big West Conference coaches, the 49ers are 2-2 after last week’s defeat at UCLA.

With the graduation of All Big-West player Melissa Gower, Akia Hardy and Kim Barfield have become the 49ers’ leaders.

Hardy, a senior point guard from Lakewood, leads the team in scoring with an 18.5-point average and in assists with eight. Against Cal, Hardy scored 18 and had 11 assists.

“I told Akia before the season started that we needed her to be one of our scorers,” said Boychuk, who played collegiately at Stetson. “She’s been a true leader for us on the floor, and when she is in the game, she makes all of our players step up their game because she just hates to lose.”

Barfield, a senior forward from Lynwood, struggled in the first two games but scored a career-high 30 points and got nine rebounds against Cal.

“Kim is such a hard person to guard,” Boychuk said about Barfield, a 5-foot-10 leaper who is averaging 5.3 rebounds. “She’s very athletic, and she goes to the boards so hard.”

The surprise player has been Ja’net Davis, a 6-4 senior who leads the team in rebounding (9.3) and blocked shots (two).

“From the very beginning of practice, [Davis] has really come to play,” Boychuk said. “People who have watched her play the last couple of years say that she has improved a great deal.”

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Two players on UCLA’s national championship water polo team were on the All-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation team, headed by goalkeeper of the year Matt Swanson.

Swanson, a junior from Poway, was co-MVP of the NCAA tournament after recording 181 saves this season, including seven in the championship game victory over Cal.

Mark Sutter was also named to the team from the Bruins, who were 20-8 in winning their fourth national title.

USC, which spent most of the season as the No. 1 team in the nation, had two players named All-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation in Hrvoje Cizmic and Marko Zagar, both two-time first-team selections.

Pepperdine’s Alan Herrman was also a first team selection.

Notes

For the first time since 1987, UCLA, USC and Long Beach State failed to reach the NCAA women’s volleyball final four. The Bruins (23-9) advanced the furthest, but lost to No. 1 Nebraska in the Central Regional finals. USC (18-9) lost to Stanford in the Pacific Regional semifinals and Long Beach (22-10) lost to San Diego State in the second round.