Road trip yields conference wins for 49ers

By Lyndsey Shinoda
Daily Forty-Niner

The road treated the No. 18-ranked Long Beach State women's volleyball team kindly this weekend, as the 49ers picked up two conference victories with wins against No. 19-ranked Utah State and Boise State.

In Saturday's game at Utah State (19-8 overall, 9-5 Big West Conference), the 49ers (17-7, 8-5) needed five games to overtake the Aggies by scores of 15-12, 15-2, 12-15, 10-15 and 15-13.

LBSU took the first two games handily, but USU battled back to win games three and four. The 49ers then rallied back to win the fifth game for the match.

One of four 49ers to hit double-figure kills, Cheryl Weaver had a match-high 29 kills and a blistering .451 hitting percentage. Elisha Thomas added 21 kills and a .463 percentage. Tayyiba Haneef tallied 18 kills and Brittany Hochevar added 10.

49er Keri Nishimoto returned to her natural position as setter and had 66 assists and 11 digs.

As a team, the 49ers hit .259 for the night as the Aggies hit .190. USU's Amy Crosbie had 22 kills and Melissa Schoepf contributed 16 kills in the losing effort.

In Thursday's game at Boise State, LBSU made short work of the Broncos in three games, 15-2, 15-3 and 15-3.

The Broncos' record is now 7-16 overall and 3-11 in the Big West.

The big guns of the 49ers hit .416 as a team and held the Broncos to a hitting percentage of .014.

Haneef pounded out 13 kills, Thomas hit 12 and Weaver had 11. Nishimoto notched 33 assists and eight digs.

Bronco Hillary Meek had five kills and teammate Tara Brinkerhoff added four.

The 49ers return home to The Pyramid for a conference match against Idaho Thursday at 7:30 p.m.