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sports
49er victory
forecast: twenty and rising
By Marten Lewerth
On-line Forty-Niner
The top-ranked
Long Beach State women's volleyball team took another step
toward the postseason this weekend with home sweeps over Cal
State Northridge and Pacific to improve to 20-0 overall and
13-0 in the Big West Conference.
Versatility was key in Saturday's showdown against No. 17
Pacific, as the visitors focused on shutting down the 49ers'
main gunner, Cheryl Weaver, before a record crowd of 3,172
at The Pyramid.
"They were putting three blockers on me most of the night,"
said Weaver, who was held to just 10 kills on .160 hitting.
"So, I just tried to block the ball and pass and everyone
else picked it up."
The defending Big West champion Tigers (20-7, 11-3 BWC) also
tried to gain an advantage by exploiting the home team's defensive
style in the 30-28, 30-21, 30-24 loss.
"Long Beach plays a perimeter defense, so the middle of the
court is wide open," said Jane McHugh, Pacific's head coach.
"Our job was to make them work for digs."
With these tactics in mind, the Tigers built an 11-3 cushion
in the first game led by Jamie Hamm and sophomore All-American
Jennifer Joines.
"They had a lot of energy and confidence in being ranked No.
1," Joines said. "We just tried to shake them up with anything
we could."
But the 49ers recovered and battled back to tie it at 18-18
off a backcourt slam from Weaver. From that point, the score
was tied six more times before a kill from junior Brittany
Hochevar and a block on Joines by Weaver gave the home team
a 30-28 win.
"We had to overcome their play," said LBSU Head Coach Brian
Gimmillaro. "You like to see that so the players know that
they can came back when you're down that far in this type
of game."
In Game 2, the 49ers came out firing. The home squad hit .442
and had leads of as many as 10 points before junior Elisha
Thomas capped the 30-21 win with her fourth kill of the game.
The score was tied 16 times in the tightly-played third game
before Long Beach jumped ahead deadlocked at 24-24 by claiming
six points in a row. Two misses by Hamm brought up match
point and Haneef sealed the contest, 30-24, with her 14th
kill of the night.
Haneef paced the floor with 14 kills and was among four 49ers
with double-digit digs (13). Brittany Hochevar had 17 digs
and nine kills and defensive specialist Tracy Bulquerin ended
a solid performance with 12 digs. Lindsay Phillips had 11
digs and setter Keri Nishimoto finished with 41 assists and
nine digs.
Hamm led Pacific with 13 kills and 19 digs while Joines was
held to 11 kills and four blocks.
Thomas took center stage Friday in the 49ers' 30-18, 30-12,
30-26 win over the Cal State Northridge (12-12, 5-8 BWC) before
1,750 at The Pyramid. The 6-foot-2 middle blocker led The
Beach with 15 kills on 20 attempts and only one error for
a career-high attack percentage of .700.
As a team the 49ers hit .376 and connected on 55 kills while
limiting the Matador attack to 33 kills on a percentage of
.103.
Trailing two games to none, the Matadors jumped out to a 10-3
lead in the third game, but the 49ers rallied behind eight
kills from Haneef and five from Thomas to clinch the match
with a 30-26 decision.
Haneef finished with 14 kills and five blocks while Weaver
had three aces, four blocks and 12 kills on .474 hitting.
Nishimoto added two aces as well, on top of 44 assists and
10 digs. Phillips led the defense with 13 digs.
Next up for LBSU is a Big West contest at UC Irvine Saturday
at 7 p.m.
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