Long Beach State Drops Heartbreaker to UC Davis in Five

Saturday, November 2

Long Beach, Calif.

7:00 PM

Long Beach State University

8-15 (5-6Big West)

UC Davis

13-11 (5-6Big West)

UC Davis

Long Beach State

Photo by: John Fajardo

11/2/2019 11:08:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Hailey Harward ties her career-high with 27 digs in the setback

By: Lindy Zamora, Associate Athletic Communications Director

Box Score (PDF)

LONG BEACH, Calif. – In an exciting five-set battle between Big West Conference opponents, Long Beach State came up just short against UC Davis as the Beach fell by set scores 23-25, 25-17, 25-21, 23-25, 13-15 on Saturday night at the Walter Pyramid.

The closely contested match ended on a controversial kill by UC Davis' (13-11, 5-6 Big West) Leonie Strehl as she hit the ball hard and long, but the Beach (8-15, 5-6 Big West) were called for a touch as the Aggies rushed the court. Despite LBSU's efforts, the call stood, and the Beach exited the court in a heart-breaking loss.

The bright spot of the night for the Beach was senior libero Hailey Harward's career-high performance with 27 digs. Harward now has amassed 1,509 career digs at Long Beach State becoming just the fourth player in LBSU history to reach 1500. She is 70 digs away from moving into third all-time at the Beach with five matches left in the regular season.

Long Beach State and UC Davis played a defensively charged contest that saw the Beach hit .163 while the Aggies hit .135. Both teams' liberos collected more than 20 digs as UC Davis' Shira Lahav finished with 23.

Davis held the advantage at the net as the Aggies posted 17.0 total team blocks to Long Beach State's 6.0. The Aggies' Josephine Ough led both teams with 10 blocks (three solo stops, seven block assists), while YiZhi Xue and Katie Kennedy each posted three blocks for the Beach.

LBSU setter Carly Aigner-Swesey registered her fourth double-double of the season as she distributed 48 assists and 10 digs. She paced the Beach offense which was led by sophomore outside hitter Kashauna Williams who concluded the contest with 22 kills. Williams led a quartet of Beach players who reached double-figures in Kennedy (12 kills), Xue (11 kills), and Avery Nelson (10 kills).

The match started off as a back-and-forth affair as Long Beach State and UC Davis traded points early on. The Aggies used a 5-0 run to take a 15-11 lead, but the Beach battled back and evened the score at 23-all. However, UC Davis took advantage of back-to-back LBSU attack errors to win the set, 25-23.

The Beach found their rhythm in the second set as they hit .346 in the frame and led by as many double digits on several occasions. The set began close, but LBSU broke the game open on a 5-1 run as the hosts led 14-7. The Beach continued to add to their lead as they cruised to a 25-17 win to even the match at one set apiece.

Another close set that saw five ties went in Long Beach State's favor after the Beach tallied three-straight points highlighted by a kill from Williams. LBSU held the lead the rest of the way despite the Aggies' efforts. Long Beach State closed out the set on a kill by Williams to win 25-21 and take a 2-1 set lead going into the fourth set.

As with the first three sets, the fourth set began close as the two teams broke through 10 ties and exchanged leads four times. With the set tied at 12-12, UC Davis rattled off three straight points to take a 15-12 lead and held the edge until Long Beach State chipped away to even the score at 21-all. With the match on the line, the Beach pushed it to 23-23 on a kill by Williams, but the Aggies regained control and won the set to force a fifth and deciding game, 25-23.

The battle continued into the fifth set as the conference foes found themselves deadlocked at 9-9. The Aggies pushed ahead and sent it to match point, 14-10 on an ace by Lahav. But Long Beach State refused to quit as Xue knocked down back-to-back kills, then team up with Nelson for a block to bring the Beach within one (14-13). Davis utilized both its timeouts within a single point of each other, and came back after the second break in action to end the match on the controversial kill.

Long Beach State hits the road for its next two matches as the Beach look to get back on the winning track at UC Irvine on Friday, Nov. 8 and at Cal State Fullerton on Saturday, Nov. 9. Both matches are set for 7 p.m.