STINGRAYS TODAY

Opponent--Columbus Quest.

Time--1 p.m. PST.

Records--Long Beach 25-17,Columbus 34-8.

Site--Battelle Hall, Columbus, Ohio.

Update--Up and down, inconsistent Long Beach is matched with the ABL’s most consistently good team today, on the regular season’s next-to-last stop. Columbus has won 13 in a row and 15 of 16. The matchup pits the league’s most productive offensive team, Long Beach, against the top defensive team. Columbus gives up 67.1 points per game and 10 times this season has held teams to all-time low scores. Offensively, Columbus has four players in double figures: Katie Smith, 17.4; Tonya Edwards, 14.2; Valerie Still, 12.9, and Shannon Johnson, 11.2. Even Quest attendance is on the rise. The team averaged only 2,700 last year in 6,313-seat Battelle Hall but is up to 3,400. Long Beach ends its regular season Tuesday at Philadelphia, then meets Colorado in a best-of-three first round playoff series beginning Feb. 21 at the Pond of Anaheim.