Long Beach State University Athletics
Long Beach State University
16-4, 6-0
Cal Poly
7-10, 2-5
The Beach Overcomes A Slow Start To Win In Four
10/18/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
LONG BEACH, Calif. - Fifteen team blocks helped the Long Beach State women's volleyball team to a four-set win at Cal Poly. The Beach (16-4, 6-0 Big West) remained undefeated in conference play and extended its win streak to a season-high six matches with the 26-28, 25-22, 25-15, 25-20 victory.
Both sides had trouble getting in rhythm on the attacking end. LBSU hit .152 for the match, which went up after .333 hitting in the third set. Cal Poly was held to .055 hitting in the match, hitting less than .100 in the final three sets.
Chisom Okpala's 11 kills on .304 hitting led the Beach while Ashley Murray had 10 kills while hitting .333. Okpala added in seven block assists while Murray had three solo stuffs and two block assists. Jenelle Hudson distributed 40 assists to go along with 16 digs.
Cal Poly hit .154 in the first set while LBSU hit just .065. The Mustangs took the lead in the early advantage in the match with three consecutive sideouts against set point, followed by two Beach attacking errors. The second set didn't feature a fluid attack either but LBSU was able to build a late six-point lead and hold on for the win to tie up the match.
LBSU found the rhythm in the third set, hitting .333 and putting up three blocks. Chelsea Cabrajac served nine consecutive points to turn an 8-5 advantage into a big 17-6 lead. The Beach cruised from there to go up 2-1. The attacking woes worsened for Cal Poly in the fourth set as it struggled to a -.020 hitting percentage while LBSU put up a .146 hitting percentage.
With 11 Mustang attacking errors in the fourth set and five kills from Bre Mackie, the Beach was able to grab the advantage in the set and hold tight for the win.
The Mustangs were led by 12 kills from Taylor Gruenewald and 11 from Raeann Greisen, who also had 11 digs.
Tyler Jackson had 15 digs for the Beach and Alex Reid had 12. Chelsea Cabrajac put up 11 digs as LBSU totaled 86 digs in the match.
The Beach win coupled with a CSUN loss on Saturday padded the Beach lead in the standings to two matches. LBSU hosts UC Riverside on Friday and UC Davis on Saturday, looking to continue its current win streak in the Big West. Both match times are set for 7 p.m.
