Long Beach State University
12-12, 8-9MPSF
BYU
17-7, 13-6MPSF
LBSU drops 3-1 MPSF decision to BYU
4/1/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
April 1, 2010
LONG BEACH, Calif. - Dean Bittner had 15 kills and Antwain Aguillard added 12 but it wasn't enough as Long Beach State dropped a 30-28, 28-30, 30-23, 30-18 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match to BYU Thursday night in the Walter Pyramid.
The Beach (12-12, 8-9 MPSF) struggled most of the night hitting just .101 as a team. Aguillard hit a team-best .400, but no other 49er who had more than five attempts managed to hit better than Bittner's .122. Long Beach State was also held without a service ace for the first time in more than three years and was outplayed at the net by BYU (17-7, 13-6 MPSF) as the Cougars had 23.5 team blocks compared to 13.5 by the 49ers. Mike Klipsch finished with 37 assists and 10 digs in just his third start of the season, while Kirk Francis added 11 digs.
Robb Stowell led the Cougars with 19 kills, 11 digs and nine blocks while Andrew Stewart tallied 10 kills, eight digs and five blocks. Futi Tavana had 10 blocks, while Russell Lavaja added eight blocks.
Game one saw a number of huge momentum swings. BYU charged out to a 6-1 lead, thanks in part to three straight blocks by the Cougars. The Beach stormed back tying the game at 17 and then finally taking a 21-20 lead on a kill by Bittner. LBSU pushed the lead to three, 27-24, on a block by Aguillard and Klipsch but BYU turned the tables winning six of the next seven points to take an early 1-0 lead.
BYU won the game despite hitting -.065, while the 49ers weren't much better at .118. The Cougars had seven team blocks compared to 4.5 for the 49ers to make the difference. Aguillard led the 49ers with five kills on seven swings, while Bittner had four on 11 swings. Tavana had five blocks for the Cougars, while Reed Chilton and Stowell had three each.
Game two was almost a replay of the first game. BYU jumped out to a 5-2 lead but the 49ers came charging back again. The Beach went on a 9-4 run to push out to a 14-9 lead behind three consecutive blocks, the first two by Bittner and Dan Alexander and the third by Tommy Pestolesi and Alexander. The Cougars called timeout and responded cutting the lead to 15-13 before eventually tying the score at 19 and 20. LBSU regained its composure scoring the next three points on kills by Alexander, Baughman and Bittner forcing another BYU timeout at 23-20.
The Cougars responded again whittling the lead to 25-24, but LBSU stopped the run there finishing out BYU by scoring five of the last eight points to tie the match. Bittner led the 49ers to the win with seven kills on 18 swings in the game. Pestolesi and Baughman had four kills each, while Aguillard and Alexander had three kills. The Beach hit .264, while holding the Cougars to just .133. LBSU also had five team blocks, with Alexander getting four block assists and Bittner three block assists, while BYU had 2.5 team blocks.
Slow starts by Long Beach State finally caught up to the 49ers in the third game. After falling behind early in games one and two before coming back to take multiple-point leads, LBSU wasn't as lucky in game three. BYU built an early 7-2 lead, and while LBSU did manage to battle back to take a 13-12 lead the 49ers could never extend it beyond that point. The Cougars countered scoring three straight points and never trailed again eventually building the lead back to as many as seven.
Long Beach State hit -.192 in the game, while BYU pushed its hitting percentage for the game to .250. Pestolesi paced the 49ers with four kills on 11 swings but hit just .000, which marked the highest hitting percentage in the game (tied with Aguillard) for The Beach. Baughman hit -.250, Alexander hit -.500 and Bittner hit -.600. The Cougars finished the game with nine blocks compared to just two for LBSU. Tavana had two block solos and four block assists in the game.
The final game got out of hand after BYU jumped out to a 12-6 lead early and pushed it to 19-9 on a block by Stowell. The Beach could never get closer than nine the rest of the way. BYU hit .500 in the final game, while LBSU countered hitting just .057. Bittner finished the game with four of his team-high kills. Stowell had seven kills on nine swings in the game for BYU, while Kevin Sagers added five on eight swings.
