Long Beach State University
UCLA
Long Beach Beats UCLA
1/7/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
49ers Defeat UCLA In E-Bar Final
SANTA BARBARA, CA—Tournament MVP Tyler Hildebrand and all-tournament selections Robert Tarr and Teddy Liles led the Long Beach State men's volleyball team to a 25-30, 36-34, 30-25, 30-22 win over UCLA in the championship match of the 42nd Annual UCSB/Elephant Bar Collegiate Classic on Saturday night. With the win the 49ers improve to 3-0 on the young season while UCLA falls to 2-1. The championship was the first since 1999 for the 49ers in this tournament. Hildebrand finished the evening with 47 assists, six block assists and eight digs as he quarterbacked the 49ers to the victory. Tarr finished with a team-high 21 kills and added a team-high nine digs. Liles recorded a double-double in the match finishing with 11 kills and 12 blocks. He also hit an impressive .526 (11-1-19). Paul George led UCLA with 18 kills and Nick Scheftic added 14. UCLA looked like it would run away and hide in game one. With the game tied 4-4, the Bruins took control jumping to a 26-12 lead. But from that point on the 49ers were in control. Although they lost game one, Long Beach battled back to pull to within 27-21 before falling 30-25. The 49ers hit negative .121 (10-14-33) in the game compared to .121 for the Bruins. "I think the fact that we didn't cash in game one and got in a rhythm helped in game two," said 49er Head Coach Alan Knipe. "We showed great composure late in game two to come away with that win. It was important for us to win this match. It wasn't real pretty. It was more of a slugfest. We stuck our nose in there and fought." In game two no one led by more than one point until the 49ers took a 21-19 lead. UCLA came right back with a big run, grabbing a 27-24 lead. At that point the 49ers turned things up a notch. Long Beach scored four straight points, climaxed by a Tarr kill, to take a 28-27 lead. UCLA tied the game at 28-28 on a kill by setter Dennis Gonzalez. UCLA pulled ahead 34-33, but Long Beach closed out the game with three straight points. A Liles kill and back-to-back hitting errors by Jamie Diefenbach closed out the win for the 49ers. Tarr led the 49ers with 11 kills in game two. Game three saw the 49ers battle back from a 24-23 deficit to out-score the Bruins seven to-one to win game three 30-25. UCLA hit just .054 (14-12-37) in the game and committed five service errors. Long Beach won game three at the net, recording 7.5 blocks in the game, including five block assists by Liles. Game four was all Long Beach. The 49ers jumped to a 16-8 lead, UCLA pulled to within 19-17, but the 49ers went on a 5-0 run to pull away. The final two points of that key run came via blocks by Hildebrand. The 49ers will next be in action on Wednesday, January 11 when they play at UC San Diego. The 49ers will be home on Saturday, January 14 when they host Cal Baptist at 7 pm at the Walter Pyramid. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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