Long Beach State University Athletics
49ers Defeat UCSB
9/22/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
49ers Roll Past UCSB In Three SANTA BARBARA -- When the two perennial Big West Conference women's volleyball powers met on Saturday evening, both squads found themselves in an unusual position, both began conference play with a loss on Friday evening. The question heading into the match was which team, Long Beach State or UC Santa Barbara, would rebound after tough Friday losses. The answer, Long Beach State. The 49ers (7-5, 1-1 Big West) earned a 30-27, 30-18, 30-28 win over the Gauchos (5-9, 0-2 Big West) Saturday night at The Thunderdome. Alexis Crimes led the 49er attack with 15 kills, six blocks, six digs and a .452 hitting percentage. Michaela Hasalikova added 11 kills while hitting .444 (11-3-18) and Quincy Verdin was the third 49er in double digits with 10 kills. Long Beach hit .325 for the evening and out-dug the Gauchos 57-42. Talaya Whitfield led the way with a season-high 21 digs and Ashley Lee added 13 to go along with her seven kills and five assists. Setter Nicole Vargas finished with 41 assists, four digs and three kills. "Being able to use Talaya the whole match was helpful," said 49er Head Coach Brian Gimmillaro. "She came close to doubling everyone else's digs. Also, with putting Sarah on the leftside midway through game one, she did fine, and Alexis and Michaela had big games for us." The 49ers trailed 15-13 in game one before taking charge. Long Beach went on an 11-4 run to take a 24-19 lead. The Gauchos cut the margin to 26-24, but a kill by Crimes and a Nicole Vargas ace gave the 49ers a 28-24 lead. Long Beach closed out the game on a kill by Lee. Crimes had six kills in game one, while in the back row, Whitfield garnered nine digs. The 49ers hit .289 in the game compared to .208 for the Gauchos. In game two Long Beach broke open the game early, taking a 14-9 lead. That margin grew to 19-12 and 23-15 before the final tally of 30-18 was recorded. Crimes added six more kills as the 49ers hit .472 (21-4-36). Senior Sarah Hudson, who stepped into the frontline at the end of game one, tallied four kills on five swings in game number two. Hudson finished the evening with a career-high six kills while hitting .364 (6-2-11). She had just two kills on the season heading into Saturday's match. In game three the 49ers broke open a 9-8 contest with a 7-0 run to grab a 16-8 lead. UCSB fought back to eventually pull to within 29-28, but Crimes finished the match with a kill to close out the victory. Lauren McLaughlin led the Gauchos with 16 kills and seven digs while senior Brett Quirarte added 15 kills and hit .444. UCSB hit .195 for the evening and tallied eight team blocks. The match also featured sister setters, junior Nicole Vargas for the 49ers and true freshman Dana Vargas for the Gauchos. Crimes had 28 kills in the two matches this weekend, moving her to No. 5 all-time at Long Beach State with 1,434 kills. She passed Tayyiba Haneef for the number five spot. The 49ers return home next week for home matches at the Walter Pyramid against UC Riverside on Friday, September 28 and UC Irvine on Saturday. Both matches begin at 7 pm.
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