Long Beach State University Athletics
Long Beach State University
19-4, 9-0Big West
CSUN
14-7, 5-4Big West
Balanced Beach Attack Leads LBSU Past CSUN
11/1/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
LONG BEACH, Calif. - Undeterred by a first set loss, the 24th-ranked Long Beach State women's volleyball team stormed back to extend its winning streak with a four set win. The Beach (19-4, 9-0 Big West remained undefeated in conference and extended its winning streak to nine matches with the 22-25, 25-18, 25-23, 25-21 victory.
Junior setter Jenelle Hudson constructed an attack that saw four of her teammates reach double digits in kills and all of them hit over .300. Three of the four hit over .400 as the Beach hit .328 as a team.
Hudson finished with 42 assists to go along with a pair of kills and five digs.
Chisom Okpala's 14 kills on .440 hitting led the attack for LBSU. Alex Reid hit .333 and had 13 kills while Ashley Murray hit 12 on .455 hitting. Bre Mackie finished out the quartet of double digit attacking with 11 kills on .429 hitting.
On the defensive end, Long Beach State came away with 12 total team blocks. Murray had three solo stuffs and three block assists to lead the effort at the net while Tyler Jackson had 22 digs in the back row. Chelsea Cabrajac came away with 10 digs.
After a CSUN run ended the first set and put the Beach in a hole, Long Beach State came back to hit .312 in the second set and pulled away at the end for the 25-18 win. Freshman Anete Brinke began playing all six rotations in the second set and gave the Beach a spark with six kills and five digs in the match.
In the third and fourth sets, the lead changed hands a couple times but most of the sets were spent slightly in favor of LBSU on the scoreboard. CSUN (14-7, 5-4 Big West) constructed several rallies to erase the slight deficits but the Beach always had an answer at the end as it came away with the crucial Big West win.
Danetta Boykin was often the one fueling the CSUN runs as she hit .515 with a match-high of 19 kills. Casey Hinger added in 16 and Cieana Stinson had 15 kills to lead the hosts.
CSUN hit .273 as a team and had eight blocks in the match.
Long Beach State kept its firm hold on first place in the Big West with Saturday's four-set win. The 49ers will now have a Friday night showdown with second-place Hawai'i for its lone match next week.
