Long Beach State University Athletics
Long Beach State University
15-6, 9-2
UC Riverside
5-16, 1-9
49ers Complete Second Sweep Of The Weekend At UCR
10/27/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
49ers Complete Second Sweep Of Weekend Against UCR RIVERSIDE, Calif. – The 49ers survived a scare in game two, but completed a big rally and won a three game conference victory on the road 30-21, 34-32, 30-15 over UC Riverside. The 49ers held the Highlanders to .104 hitting, and finished the match with ten blocks, recording the second-lowest hitting percentage of the year for a Long Beach State opponent. Quincy Verdin led the 49ers with 12 kills on .647 hitting. Putting together their best serving match of the year, the 49ers made nine service aces, including five from Sarah Hudson and three from Nicole Vargas. Long Beach State put everything together in the third game, hitting .457 with 18 kills and just two errors, improving the team's overall hitting to .280 on the match. Michaela Hasalikova finished with 12 kills along with Verdin, and Alexis Crimes continued her season-long streak of double-digit games with 10 kills. Long Beach State opened the match up 7-3, taking advantage of a number of UC Riverside errors and creating two aces on their own. UC Riverside regained lead at 9-8 and moved ahead 11-9 behind a couple of kills from Angie Mitchell. After giving up the two point lead, Long Beach State called a timeout, setting up the team's recovery. At that point, the 49ers took over the game, unreeling a 9-0 run with two aces from Ashley Lee for an 18-11 lead before an answering UC Riverside timeout. The Highlanders got the point out of the break, but Long Beach State easily took the game, winning 30-21. UC Riverside opened up game two with vastly improved play, starting out the game with four straight points and moving out to a 5-1 lead. Riding the hitting of Tonbara Youpele, the Highlanders moved ahead 11-6. The 49ers didn't cut into the lead, and UC Riverside extended their lead to 19-11 as the 49ers made a number of attack errors to help the Highlander offense. With Ashley Lee serving, the 49ers began to rally back into the match, as Lee sparked another good rotation and Long Beach State moved within two at 20-18. UC Riverside stopped the run, and went on to move ahead by five at 25-20. Long Beach State again closed on the lead, cutting it back to two at 27-25 and finally tying the game at 29 after holding off a game point for the Highlanders. The 49ers held on through one more game point for the Highlanders, and finally on the team's third try Long Beach State won game two 34-32. Responding with a quick effort out of the break, Long Beach State opened with a 7-3 lead following a pair of aces along with a setting error from UC Riverside. With that cushion, Long Beach State continued to dominate the third game, moving out to a lead of 17-8 en route to a 30-15 win and a 3-0 match victory. The 49ers return home for one conference match on Tuesday against Cal State Fullerton at the Walter Pyramid on October 30 at 7 p.m., and will also host Cal State Bakersfield on Friday at 7 p.m. in one of the team's four remaining non-conference games. |
