Defending
champs baffle 49ers yet again
By Gina Ponce
On-line Forty-Niner
The
No. 5 ranked Long Beach State men’s volleyball
team fell to 7-5 overall and 3-4 Mountain
Pacific Sports Federation after having an
upsetting week with back-to-back losses
against the No.2 ranked Hawaii Warriors
(8-2, 4-2 MPSF).
The 49ers lead game one Wednesday until
struggles with poor defense and covering
hitters and blockers turned the game. This
opened up the opportunity for the Warriors
to take advantage with an 8-3 run.
Hawaii came out on top 30-23 after another
7-4 run. They had 17 kills out of 32 attempts
for a .438 hitting percentage while The
Beach came up with 15 kills on 33 total
attempts.
Yassir Sliti, from the 49ers, said, “We
gave up too many points in certain rotations.
When we lost focus we were giving up five
to six points in a row.”
Serving also proved to be a problem for
LBSU throughout the match. Five service
errors were committed in the first game.
Alan Knipe, head coach for the 49ers, said
the team absolutely missed way too many
serves and this did not give them the opportunity
to score points.
Game two started off with more errors from
Long Beach State and an 8-3 run from Hawaii.
Tony Ching, with 19 kills overall for Hawaii,
helped the Warriors widen the gap to 23-14.
Hawaii went on to win the game 30-22 with
the game point being a service ace from
Eyal Zimet.
Tension mounted in game three as The Beach
fought back to take the game 38-36.
The 49ers had 24 kills and a .465 hitting
percentage. Scott Touzinsky helped LBSU
pull ahead in the game with 11 kills and
had the match-high of 26 kills.
The Warriors finished the match in game
four 30-22.
“Hawaii
played very well and they played better
longer. We didn’t put together enough complete
games,” Knipe said.
The second match against Hawaii ended in
a 3-0 sweep in favor of the Warriors. LBSU
kept the score close in game one until Hawaii
went on a 10-1 run ending the game 30-19.
The Warriors had 14 kills and a .500 hitting
percentage compared to the 49ers 10 kills
and .037 hitting percentage.
“We’ve been working a lot on defense, but
it’s never going to perfect,” Paul Munoz
of the 49ers said.
The lead in score went back and forth between
the teams in games two and three, but it
was not enough for The Beach to gain a victory.
Hawaii won both games 30-27.
“We played well against a good team, and
even though we lost that gives us confidence,”
Sliti said.
Knipe said he thought that the team played
very well at times but more importantly
they played hard. He said the rebounding,
passing and serving was much better in the
second match.
“We need to be able to execute at the end
of games and find ways to turn points late
in games,” Knipe said.
“We’re getting better,” Munoz said. “In
each game we’re succeeding in one more skill.”
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