Long Beach State University Athletics
Long Beach State University
24-4, 14-0
UC Riverside
2-25, 0-15
The Beach Sweeps UC Riverside For Outright Title
11/22/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
RIVERSIDE, Calif. - A dominating performance clinched the outright Big West title for the Long Beach State women's volleyball team on Saturday night. The Beach (24-4, 14-0 Big West) swept UC Riverside 25-11, 25-18, 25-12 to clinch the outright title with two matches left to play.
Big numbers went up on both sides of the net for the 49ers, who hit .514 as a team. It was the highest hitting percentage for the Beach since Aug. 26, 2011 against Prairie View A&M. Chisom Okpala led the charge with 12 kills on .733 hitting. The Beach made only three attacking errors in the match, hitting .500 or better in all three sets.
On the defensive end, Tyler Jackson had 10 digs and Alex Reid added in nine. Okpala had seven block assists as the Beach put up 12 blocks as a team while only being blocked once.
Behind the service line, Chelsea Cabrajac had a career day with five aces. Three of those came in the first set. Jenelle Hudson added in an ace to go along with 33 assists, five digs, four kills and five blocks.
After breezing through the first set, UC Riverside (2-25, 0-15 Big West) challenged in the second. A 17-12 Beach lead quickly turned into a 17-17 tie behind the arm of Helena Peric. Peric had six of her 15 kills in the set and fueled the run. However, head coach Brian Gimmillaro called a quick timeout to stop the run at five points. The Beach responded with an 8-1 run to claim a 2-0 lead at the break.
The drama did not return in the third set as the Beach cruised to the sweep. With the sweep, the Beach has won 14 matches in a row and 13 sets in a row with four straight sweeps.
Long Beach State closes out the season at home with a Wednesday matchup against UC Irvine at 7 p.m. in the Pyramid and a 7 p.m. Saturday match at home against Cal State Fullerton.
