CSULB Online 49er: v9n20: The Beach takes out No.4 Stanford

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The Beach takes out No. 4 Stanford

By Marten Lewerth
On-line Forty-Niner

The last time a women's volleyball team from Long Beach State won a match against Stanford, Jimmy Carter sat in a plush leather chair in the Oval Office.

All that changed Tuesday as the No. 2-ranked 49ers defeated the previously unbeaten 2001 Stanford squad 30-27, 21-30, 30-21, 30-23, before a record crowd of 3,904 at The Pyramid.

"It's like sitting on top of the world," said 49er Tayyiba Haneef, who led the floor with 21 kills as Long Beach improved to 8-0 (2-0 Big West Conference) on the season. "There's no way that we can't be No. 1 now."

Long Beach hit for a .261 attack percentage in the match while Stanford (8-1, 2-0 Pac-10) finished hitting .226.

"They're playing with a lot of confidence," said first-year Stanford Coach John Dunning, who spent the prior 16 seasons leading the program at Pacific. "Long Beach is clearly one of the best teams in the country."

Current Big West Player of the Week Cheryl Weaver tallied 16 kills on a .406 hitting percentage for The Beach, while teammate Brittany Hochevar finished with 11 kills, two service aces and 12 digs. 49er setter Keri Nishimoto had 12 digs as well, on top of 47 assists and six kills, which tied her career-best kill total.

For Stanford, two-time All American Logan Tom had 15 kills and 14 digs, followed by freshman Ogonna Nnamani with 14 kills and junior Ashley Ivy with 13. Setter Robyn Lewis, a native of Long Beach, totaled 48 assists.

The first 49er victory over a Stanford team since October, 1978 also made the record books because the attendance of almost 4,000 ranked 6th best in program history.

"I was distracted once by the level of passion for our school," said 49er Head Coach Brian Gimmillaro of the highly vocal audience. "I've always wanted to see that."

The excitement began early as the teams battled back and forth in Game 1. Long Beach built leads of as many as five points, but Stanford kept rallying with strong efforts from Nnamani and Ivy in particular. The clinching series began tied at 26 when Haneef followed up a kill with a service ace before Brittany Hochevar sent a quick dump over the net to bring up game point. Stanford's Tom tipped over a ball to bring it to 29-27, but Hochevar answered with a bullet down the right side to win Game 1, 30-27, for Long Beach.

In Game 2 the Cardinal squad turned up the offensive heat and hit for an attack percentage of .343 while the 49ers struggled with a mark of .122. The Beach suffered nine hitting errors in the frame while the Cardinal block -- led by Ivy and Sara McGee -- held the home team to 14 kills. Stanford trailed only once in the game -- by one point -- and finished the frame with a nine point cushion.

Down to a best of three series after two games, the match could have gone either way, but Hochevar said Gimmillaro inspired the 49ers with a locker room talk during the break.

"I'm not sure we understood that we were as good as we are," Gimmillaro said. "Sometimes you deserve what you get. I think the team didn't realize that we were better, that we deserved to be successful."

Game 3 opened with the 49ers back on track, as the offense poured on the pressure while the blocking tandem of Weaver and Elisha Thomas held Stanford to a .024 hitting percentage.

"I thought Elisha blocked well in the third game," Gimmillaro said, "and Cheryl was just dominating the whole time."

Leading by as many as 10 points over the course of the frame, the 49ers closed Game 3, 30-21, off another game-winning kill from Hochevar.

"They stole the energy for a little while [in Game 2] but I never felt we were out of control or felt we were under-armed," Hochevar said. "We had the guns and we knew it the entire time."

The 49er attack intensified in the fourth frame, as the team hit .457 and Haneef contributed eight kills en route to a 30-23 win. In a match trend of sorts, the final kill again came from Hochevar.

"It's just how the flow of the game went," she said. "I got lucky."

The 49ers resume Big West play Friday with a match against UC Riverside at 7:30 p.m. at The Pyramid.