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sports
Beach
opens Big West play
By Marten Lewerth
On-line Forty-Niner
The No. 2-ranked
women’s volleyball team opened its Big West Conference schedule
this weekend with victories over UC Santa Barbara and Cal
Poly at The Pyramid.
While Long Beach
(7-0, 2-0 BWC) had an easier time Saturday with a 30-21, 30-21,
30-11 sweep over Cal Poly (8-2, 2-1 BWC), Friday’s contest
against UC Santa Barbara (2-5, 0-1 BWC) almost resulted in
a loss for the undefeated 49ers.
Trailing two games
to one, The Beach rallied in the fourth and fifth games to
defeat the No. 18-ranked Gauchos, 30-23, 26-30, 24-30, 30-22,
15-8, before a Pyramid crowd of 2,361.
The Beach seemed
to be on track early after claiming Game 1, but the Gauchos
took advantage with wins in Games 2 and 3 on strong efforts
from Danielle Bauer, Erica Menzel and Niki Carroll.
"We were so
geared up to get back in game mode that we were trying to
do too much," said 49er Brittany Hochevar. "We weren’t
fitting into the flow of the game."
Leading 11-7 in
the fourth game, 49er Head Coach Brian Gimmillaro made a move
to spark his team by sending Lyndsay Phillips to the front
row for the first time this season.
"I wasn’t
really asking Lyndsay to score, I just wanted to stabilize
the lineup," Gimmillaro said. "Lyndsay has an effect
of doing that ... the scoring was a bonus."
Phillips, still
recovering from an ankle injury, tallied three quick kills
and the 49ers went on to claim the fourth game, 30-24.
Long Beach took
the deciding fifth game, 15-8, after breaking out of a 5-5
stalemate. Elisha Thomas delivered a key block and Cheryl
Weaver slammed home a rally-breaking kill that gave The Beach
an 8-6 lead.
After another Weaver
kill gave The Beach a 10-8 advantage, Hochevar served up the
final five points, which included an ace and two kills from
Phillips before the Gauchos’ Menzel returned the ball wide
to close out the match for the 49ers.
Weaver paced the
floor with 29 kills against the Gauchos. Tayyiba Haneef had
24 kills and setter Keri Nishimoto finished with 67 assists.
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