49ers defeat UCSB in four

In front of a season-high 1,497 spectators, the Cal State Long Beach women's volleyball team defeated UC Santa Barbara 14-16, 15-11, 15-8, 15-4 Friday night at The Gold Mine.

The 49ers avenged an earlier loss to the Gauchos and stayed in the hunt for the Big West Conference title.

In the first game, the 49ers held a commanding 13-4 lead. But the Gauchos scored eight unanswered points and eventually won the game.

"When we jump out to a big lead, we're trying to stay mentally tough and focused," said senior outside hitter Nichelle Burton. "It's basically our side of the net which has to control the game."

The 49ers raced to another lead in the second game, 11-3, before the Gauchos tightened the gap to 11-7. However, UCSB's poor ball control opened the path for the 49ers. The Gauchos hit just .043 in that game compared to .279 for the 49ers.

UCSB continued to play bad the remainder of the match, hitting in the negative in the third and fourth games. Meanwhile, senior defensive specialist Prentice Perkins dazzled the crowd with her career-high fiveservice aces in the match.

"Serving, just serving," said UCSB coach Kathy Gregory on the key to to the 49er's win. "Perkins really served us off the court. They didn't serve like that (at Santa Barbara). The secret is you have to serve them tougher and we didn't do that tonight."

Burton had a game-high 19 kills, 17 digs and hit .351 while senior middle blocker Traci Dahl added 16 kills and hit .292. Kim Keys led the Gauchos with 12 kills but also had 12 hitting errors.

The crowd was the fifth largest in the 49er's history. Last season against the Gauchos, 1,809 witnessed the 49ers sweep UCSB.

"I think this is a difficult place to play," said coach Brian Gimmillaro. "But the fans here are great-they cheer. You go up to Pacific or Santa Barbara and the people behind the bench call our players every name in the world. Here, it's a real nice, enthusiastic, supportive crowd."

CSULB and Cal State Fullerton, two women's volleyball programs that are heading into opposite directions, met Saturday at The Gold Mine with the 49ers winning handily in 49 minutes, 15-2, 15-1 and 15-5.

On one side of the court were the 49ers, defending NCAA champions with a current record of 12-1 in the Big West,17-3 overall and the loud support of the majority of the 467 fans in attendance

On the other side were the winless Titans, a team that has not won a match in over a year and has the worst record in the Big West, 0-11 and 0-22 overall.

"We are steadily getting better but I think it has more to do with [Gimmillaro's] team not playing as good in the early season as they do towards the end of the season," said Titan head coach Mary Ellen Murchison. "Long Beach really starts to peak towards playoff time and no matter who they bring here-Santa Barbara, Pacific, Hawaii-I think the 49ers are going to play well against them."

Team leaders for the 49ers were Dahl, who had nine kills and four block assists and Burton, who recorded eight kills and 10 digs.

Words of encouragement for Titan coach and CSULB graduate Murchison came from Gimmillaro.

"Fullerton will get better, because their younger players are pretty good. Their older players are not as good, so they'll start getting better now," Gimmillaro said.