Long Beach State Kicks Off Conference Action With Sweep Over UC Riverside

Tuesday, September 18

Long Beach, Calif.

7:00 PM

Long Beach State University

9-5 (1-0Big West)

UC Riverside

5-7 (0-1Big West)

UC Riverside

Long Beach State

Photo by: Photo by John Fajardo

Long Beach State Kicks Off Conference Action With Sweep Over UC Riverside

9/18/2018 10:06:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

YiZhi Xue led the Beach offense with 11 kills on .588 hitting

By: Lindy Zamora, Associate Athletic Communications Director

WATCH: @LBSU_WVB head coach Joy McKienzie-Fuerbringer, Tyler Spriggs, and Hailey Harward talk about the team's 3-0 victory over UCR #GoBeach #LBNation

https://t.co/Y3csddYV3V via @LBSUAthletics
— LBSU W. Volleyball (@LBSU_WVB) September 19, 2018

Box Score (PDF)

LONG BEACH – Big West Conference action began on Tuesday and Long Beach State wasted no time picking up its first league win as the Beach earned a 3-0 [25-17, 25-21, 25-20] sweep over UC Riverside at the Walter Pyramid.

The Beach (9-5, 1-0 Big West) have won three straight matches and have emerged victorious in six of their last seven matches. Meanwhile, the Highlanders fall to 5-7 (0-1 Big West).

Long Beach State hit just under .300 on the match as YiZhi Xue led the offense with 11 kills on 17 swings while committing just one error for a .588 attack percentage. Setters Carly Aigner-Swesey and Mina Andjelkovic spread the ball around as Tyler Spriggs (9 kills), Allison Martinez (8 kills), and Hailey Harward (7 kills) all contributed to the LBSU offense.

On the other side of the ball, the Beach were paced by Harward and libero Gigi Alex who combine for 25 digs. Harward finished the match with 14 digs, while Alex added 11. Spriggs also contributed nine digs narrowly missing a double-double.

The Beach registered a solid blocking game as they posted 11.0 total team blocks to the Highlanders' 1.0. Emma Kirst and Kashauna Williams each tallied six block assists, while Xue posted four, and Martinez recorded three.

Long Beach State opened the match on a 5-1 run highlighted by a pair of kills from Spriggs. UC Riverside managed to even the score at 8-all, but the Beach used a 4-1 run to go back up 12-9. LBSU put some distance between itself and UCR and went on to win the first set, 25-17.

The second set was all Long Beach State as the Beach hit .333 and slammed 15 kills in the frame, while never trailing. LBSU kicked off the game with a pair of points on UCR miscues and used that to its advantage. The Beach held the lead throughout and took a 2-0 set lead over the Highlanders after collecting a 25-21 win.

The Highlanders fought hard in the third set and tied the game six different times. However, the Beach rattled off three straight points to take a 14-11 lead and never looked back. Despite Riverside's efforts, Long Beach State led the rest of the way as the Beach closed out the match with a 25-20 set win.

Long Beach State will be back in action on Saturday, September 22 when it travels to CSUN for a 7 p.m. contest.