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sports
Haneef nabs Big
West honor
By Marten Lewerth
On-line Forty-Niner
Tayyiba Haneef
picked up her second Big West Conference Player of the Week
award on the season Monday for her work in matches against
Cal State Northridge and Pacific over the weekend.
The 6-foot-7 outside
hitter/middle blocker paced the top-ranked Long Beach State
women's volleyball team during the two-match stretch by averaging
4.67 kills, 3.33 digs and 1.17 blocks per game. Haneef, a
native of Laguna Hills, also hit for an attack percentage
of .354 in the two conference matches.
"Tayyiba's
becoming one of the dominant players in the nation,"
said LBSU Head Coach Brian Gimmillaro. "What distinguishes
her from other players is her ability to hit from anywhere
on the court from any kind of set."
Haneef, a graduate
student who completed a bachelor's degree in speech communications
last spring, currently leads the undefeated 49ers with 308
kills (4.74 kpg) on .411 hitting through 65 games played this
year. She is also second in digs with 152 (2.34 dpg) and third
in aces with 23 (0.35 apg).
This was the sixth
time this season that a 49er has received the Big West's weekly
honor. Haneef's teammate Cheryl Weaver has been picked four
times in the past nine weeks.
In other news,
the 49ers are now the only undefeated Division I team in the
nation after No. 8 Colorado State (20-1) fell in five games
to fellow Mountain West Conference rival and 14th-ranked Utah
Saturday.
The 49ers, bolstered
by the nation's highest attack percentage (.359), have amassed
a record of 20-0 overall and 13-0 in the Big West this year
with eight matches remaining before the start of the postseason.
The team's current record is its best since 1998, when The
Beach became the first Division I women's volleyball team
to go undefeated (36-0) en route to the school's third NCAA
title.
Four current 49ers,
including Haneef, Weaver, setter Keri Nishimoto and defensive
specialist Tracy Bulquerin, were on 1998's roster.
The Beach continues
its run at an undefeated season against Big West foe UC Irvine
Saturday in Irvine. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
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