Photo by John Kennedy

49er Martin Wagner spikes the ball through Pacific defender.
The 49ers defeated Pacific, 15-7, 15-4 and 15-6

Men's volleyball loses, then wins

By Dave Coventry, Forty-Niner Online
March 12, 1996

The last thing the Cal State Long Beach Men's Volleyball team wanted to do after a long trip was to arrive at the Pyramid for a mid-term homestead and lose a hard fought battle to No. 7 Stanford University.

However, within one hour and 44 minutes Friday night, the 49ers dropped three close games to the Cardinals 15-13, 16-14, 15-8.

CSULB was ranked No. 3 in the nation going into the weekend and hoped to improve its record of 11-3 in front of a record 755 crowd against a Stanford team it had previously beaten this year.

Stanford was able to become the only second team in its division to beat CSULB and the only team in the division to do so in The Pyramid.

The Cardinals made a team effort to combine for 85 kills in the three game sweep. the team also registered six aces against the 49ers.

The 49ers were just not getting the ball to bounce their way in the match. they combined for a low team attack percentage of .302 and tallied up 33 errors before they left the Pyramid.

Geoffrey Cryst led the 49ers with 27 kills and combined with Tom Hoff for a total of 49 in the frustratingly close three games.

CSULB registered 12 service aces to help give Stanford plenty of chances to stay in the game.

The loss will definitely change the Volleyball Magazine and the coaches' poll rankings this week.

The 49ers came back to The Pyramid the following night and easily disposed of the University of the Pacific 15-7, 14-4, 15-6.

Losing to Stanford did not daunt Coach Ratell's players, who sent the Tigers packing after barely more than one hour of play.

Martin Wagner had the team-high kill completions with 19, while Cryst and Hoff combined for 23 kills.

The 49ers defense, while registering 13 blocks and 32 digs, never let Pacific in the match.

The win separated CSULB, which is in second place behind No. 1 Hawaii from the rest of the division pack.

The Tigers were coming off a big win against USC Friday night and their fatigue showed as they combined for a total of 38 errors.