Long Beach State University Athletics
Long Beach State University
12-5, 6-1Big West
UC Davis
3-16, 0-8Big West
49ers Outlast Aggies In Davis
10/13/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
49ers Outlast Aggies In Davis DAVIS, Calif. – After fighting off two match points, Nicole Vargas put down a final kill to finish off UC Davis 28-30, 30-22, 30-23, 23-30, 18-16 on Friday night to improve to 12-5 on the year. Ashley Lee finished with a triple double for the 49ers and Nicole Vargas was just one kill short as the remaining 49ers stepped up in the absence of Alexis Crimes and Naomi Washington. Crimes was held out due to an ankle injury sustained in last night's win over Pacific, and Washington was lost early in the first game with the Aggies, forcing the team to change responsibilities and pick up the slack where they could. That in particular came from big performances from the remaining starters. Quincy Verdin and Michaela Hasalikova tied for the team lead with 19 kills each, and the 49ers finished up with 73 total kills. Ashley Lee finished with her seventh double-double of the year, and grabbed the first triple-double of the year with 12 kills, 10 assists, and 18 digs, and Nicole Vargas just missed with a career-high nine kills, 52 assists and a team-high 20 digs. Long Beach State opened the fifth game with a 3-1 run, taking advantage of a couple of errors from UC Davis and a Hasalikova kill, but UC Davis managed to make their way back and held an 8-6 lead going into the switch. The 49ers fought off a point where the Aggies kept the ball alive with a kick, and finished off the point, and the 49ers fought all the way back to take a 9-8 lead after the first of three kills from Quincy Verdin. UC Davis regained the lead on a Julie King and Erin Turner block at 13-12, and held a 14-13 lead before Lee put down a kill to tie the game. The 49ers went to Lee once again when threatened by a 15-14 score, and after UC Davis tied the game again at 16, the Beach got a quick sideout with a Verdin kill, and Nicole Vargas won a joust at the net to close out the match with an 18-16 game five win. The 49ers held close in game one, but seemed a little unsettled early. With Alexis Crimes already out for the match, the team lost Washington early in the game, and the team had to immediately adjust, and led by Renee Ibekwe the Aggies grabbed a game one win 30-28. The 49ers adjusted in game two, setting the ball to Hasalikova more as the 6-4 middle blocker served and worked the front for the first time on the year, and the senior responded, coming up with a season-high in kills, and the team easily won game two, hitting .486 and holding the Aggies to .244 hitting in the second game. With the match tied at a game apiece, game three was tight early, but the 49ers moved out to at 17-13 lead, and easily extended the advantage they had winning seven straight points to move from 22-21 to 29-21 on the way to a 30-23 win. Game four was the opposite of game two, as UC Davis hit .400 while the 49ers hit just .086, mostly off of good blocking from the Aggies, who finished the match with 14.5 blocks. UC Davis had control early, moving out to an 18-11 lead before forcing the final game. Overall, the 49ers finished the night hitting .219 to UC Davis' .205, but were helped in the end by 34 attack errors along with and 14 service errors, which offset six aces from Aggie servers. On Long Beach State's side, the 49ers finished with 4 aces, two coming from Cynthia Buggs. Long Beach State returns for two games at the Walter Pyramid next week. The team will host UC Santa Barbara on Friday night at 7 p.m. before playing Cal Poly at 7 p.m. on Saturday, October 20. That game will be shown live nationally on CSTV.
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