Long Beach State University Athletics
Long Beach State University
13-4, 3-0Big West
CSUN
11-4, 2-1Big West
LBSU Wins Battle Of Big West Unbeatens
10/4/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
LONG BEACH, Calif. - With an early edge in the race for the Big West on the line, the Long Beach State women's volleyball team protected its home court with a four-set win over CSUN on Saturday. The Beach (13-4, 3-0 Big West) had a hot hand for most of the night as it hit .316 in the match, including two sets of over-.400 hitting, in the 25-20, 25-16, 20-25, 25-22 win.
Senior Bre Mackie led the efficient attack with a match-high of 16 kills on .481 hitting. Alex Reid turned in a double-double with 15 kills on .314 hitting and 13 digs. Chisom Okpala and Sophie Bukovec each added in 11 kills. Jenelle Hudson dished out 48 assists while adding nine digs and five kills.
Tyler Jackson led the Beach defensively with 16 digs while Okpala had four blocks.
Long Beach State immediately grabbed the lead in the first set and never looked back. Mackie slammed down a kill to get the scoring started and increased the lead to 3-0 with another. She had seven of her 16 kills in the first set. CSUN would come within one point when Danetta Boykin put down a kill to make the score 4-3 but that would be as close as the visitor would get.
LBSU led by as much as six points at 17-11 in the first set as it held the Matadors (11-4, 2-1 Big West) to just .067 hitting while hitting .219. Service pressure and three team blocks helped keep CSUN out of rhythm.
The second set was an inflated version of the same story. The Beach led wall-to-wall and held its biggest lead at 18-7 after another Mackie kill. The 49ers hit a scorching .458 in the set while CSUN stayed out of rhythm and managed to hit just .100.
The visitors found that missing rhythm in the third as they opened up a late lead in the third to avoid the sweep. A 15-15 game suddenly turned into a 20-16 CSUN advantage. Boykin and Casey Hinger combined for nine kills to lead the attack that hit .324 in the set. Despite eight combined kills from Reid and Okpala, the Beach managed only a .158 percentage in the set.
Both teams came out swinging in the fourth set but it was the Beach who came out on top to clinch the match. CSUN made just one error on the attack for .385 hitting but LBSU hit .452 to come out on top. Bukovec emerged as the late hero as she put down seven kills on nine swings to lead the attack in the fourth.
The big win for the Beach sets up another potential first place showdown in the Pyramid next week. LBSU hosts Hawai'i for a 7 p.m. match that will also be broadcast on ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app.
