Long Beach State Battles No. 16 UCLA Before Falling in Four Sets

Thursday, September 13

Long Beach, Calif.

7:00 PM

Long Beach State University

6-5

UCLA

5-2

UCLA

Long Beach State

Photo by: Photo by John Fajardo

Long Beach State Battles No. 16 UCLA Before Falling in Four Sets

9/13/2018 10:43:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Williams, Alex, Dela Cruz set new career-highs, Harward and Aigner-Swesey post double-doubles

By: Lindy Zamora, Associate Athletic Communications Director

Box Score (PDF) | Photo Gallery

LONG BEACH – The Long Beach State women's volleyball team turned in a solid performance behind several career-highs and a pair of double-doubles as the Beach pushed No. 16 UCLA to the brink, before dropping a 3-1 [21-25, 25-17, 23-25, 23-25] decision on Thursday night at the Walter Pyramid.

The Bruins (5-2) narrowly out-hit the Beach (6-5), .210 to .199, but Long Beach State led UCLA in almost every other statistical category as LBSU held the edge in kills (58-47), assists (57-45), digs (65-64), and aces (4-2).

Long Beach State had three players reach double-figure kills as Hailey Harward and Kashauna Williams led the way with 16 apiece, and Tyler Spriggs added 14. The 16 kills by the duo tied Harward's season-high and marked a new career-best for Williams.

Harward also added 14 digs for her seventh double-double of the season. Additionally, Carly Aigner-Swesey recorded her first-career double-double as she dished out 50 assists to go along with 13 digs.

The Beach received several solid defensive efforts led by Gigi Alex who recorded a career-high 16 digs at libero. Freshman Dylan Dela Cruz collected a career-best 12 digs as she reached double-figures for the first time in her collegiate career.

With a number of high-level performances from Long Beach State, the Beach battled the Bruins throughout the match and never trailed by more than five points.

Long Beach State started off the match with a 5-2 lead, but UCLA countered as the two teams fought through six ties and four lead changes in the first set. With the game tied at 21-all, the Bruins closed it out on a 4-0 run to win 25-21.

Despite the loss in the first set, Long Beach State bounced back in the second and jumped out to an early 4-0 lead. The Beach led the entire frame as they hit .342, knocking down 17 kills on 38 swings, while committing just four attack errors. LBSU posted an impressive sideout percentage of 83 percent and defeated UCLA, 25-17.

UCLA started off the third with a 7-3 lead over Long Beach State and extended their lead to as many as five (16-11). However, the Beach chipped away at the Bruins' lead and eventually cut the deficit down to two (22-20) on a kill by Williams. The Beach took advantage of a Bruins service error before a kill off the hands of Spriggs evened the game at 23-all. UCLA called a timeout and came out of the break to a kill followed by an LBSU attack error as the Bruins claimed the third set, 25-23.

The fourth and final set was a battle throughout. The Beach and the Bruins matched each other point for point as the two teams exchanged leads four times and were tied up nine different times. The final tie of the set came on a UCLA service error which knotted the game at 16-16. However, the Bruins followed that with three straight points as they took a 19-16 lead over the Beach and never looked back. From there, UCLA held the lead the rest of the way. Long Beach State pulled within one (24-23) on a Williams kill but the Bruins came away on top with a 25-23 win.

Long Beach State looks to get back on the winning track when it hosts the Mizuno Invitational this weekend. The Beach will host Lamar on Friday at 7 p.m., before taking on Fresno State on Saturday at 7 p.m.