Pacific sweeps The Beach

By Marten Lewerth
Daily Forty-Niner

Conference woes continued for The Beach Saturday in Stockton with a three-game loss to University of the Pacific.

Coming off its first Big West win of the season against UC Irvine at home last Wednesday (15-6, 15-9, 15-4), the Long Beach State women's volleyball team prepared for a match against Pacific, a team that has prevailed in the teams' past two meetings.

Head Coach Brian Gimmillaro said Friday that playing Pacific is always a tough task, even more so this season because of the 49ers' 0-2 conference start.

"Traditionally, this could be the hardest game of the season," Gimmillaro said, "especially now, because we didn't think we'd get the [conference] losses."

Pacific (10-3, 3-1 BWC) jumped to an early lead in Game 1 at the Alex G. Spanos Center, but the 49ers (9-4, 1-3 BWC) rallied to jump ahead 10-9. The No. 17-ranked Tigers battled back and forced LBSU to fight off four game points before Kara Gormsen notched the game-winning kill.

"We had our opportunities to win the first game but we just couldn't capitalize," Gimmillaro said Sunday.

Tight action continued in the second game, as the 49ers had to fight off eight game points with the score at 14-13 before Pacific prevailed, again off a kill from Gormsen.

"You don't generally get so many opportunities against a good team," Gimmillaro said.  "The pivotal point in the match kept coming up but we couldn't do anything with it."

With two games at hand, Pacific dominated early in Game 3, jumping out to an 8-1 lead before earning the sweep with a 15-9 finish.

Senior Danielle Shinn led Pacific with 19 kills and 15 digs.

For the 49ers, Cheryl Weaver posted 19 kills, 10 digs and seven blocks while setter Brittany Hochevar put up 56 assists and 11 digs. Additionally, Tayyiba Haneef and Sarah Connor each had 15 kills.

Although The Beach is off to its worst conference start since 1986, Gimmillaro said the team's focus remains on development.

"National standings is our main issue -- not the conference rankings," Gimmillaro said. "We're very close to being a very good team. It's only one-third of the way through the season, so we just need to improve and see what happens."

After the "Dream Team" exhibition Tuesday, the 49ers will face Utah State at home Thursday at 7:30 p.m.