49ers
lose close match at home to UCI
Jon Cook/ On-line Forty-Niner
By
Daniel Frias
On-line Forty-Niner
The
Long Beach State women's volleyball team
battled UC Irvine Saturday at The Pyramid
to see who would stand alone atop the Big
West Conference.
Both
teams were tied for first place coming into
the match up. The game took five sets and
eight extra points in the final match to
determine a winner. The Anteaters (6-1,
15-4) managed to edge out The Beach (5-2,
10-4) winning 3 matches including a nail
biter in the last set to take sole possession
of first place in the conference (30-28,
27-30, 31-29, 16-30, 23-21).
UCI
and LBSU won two games each to send it into
a fifth and final game. The Beach had a
slight advantage when 6'3" freshman
Mariko Crum scored three consecutive points
to give the 49ers a 9-6 lead. UCI tied it
at 12 and from then on both teams traded
points until a netting error by the 49ers
gave UCI game point. The Anteaters scored
on the following play when Natalie Uhart
hit the ball out of bounds giving them the
victory 23-21.
"I
don't think it has hit us yet," UCI
player Brenda Waterman said. "It's
a good feeling for us. We've been waiting
a long time for this."
The
win snaps LBSU 37 game winning streak over
UCI. The Anteaters had not beaten the 49ers
since 1985.
"At
the end it was anybody's game," UCI
head coach Charlie Brande said. "To
make that final push and win is huge for
these girls. I have great respect for Long
Beach. I'm happy to even be playing with
this team. To come here and be close and
be able to win three games against this
team is pretty good for us."
The
Anteaters set the tempo early in the game.
They got off to a good start and took a
10-5 lead in the first match, eventually
winning, 30-28. The 49ers made a valiant
effort behind solid efforts from senior
Liz Hudson and freshman Robin Miramontes,
but fell short of the win, 30-27. UCI recorded
20 kills for a .389 hitting percentage compared
to the 49ers 19 kills and .256 hitting percentage.
The
second game belonged to The Beach as they
took it 30-27. The Beach almost blew a seven
point lead at 27-20 as UCI started to rally,
but were able to hold them off.
The
49ers played their worst game in the next
set as they committed 10 errors and had
a dismal .143 hitting percentage.
The Anteaters capitalized on the 49ers mistakes
and won the third match 31-29.
Miramontes
led The Beach with a career-best 19 kills
followed by Hudson's career high18 kills
and 14 digs. Hudson posted her seventh double-double
of the season.
"We
made more mistakes," said Gimmallaro.
"You're not going to win if you give
points away. It's a very tough game to lose.
We had millions of opportunities to win.
When you don't take advantage of those opportunities
your going to lose."
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