49ers'
volleyball advances to playoffs
Jon
Cook/On-line Forty-Niner
Jon
Cook/On-line Forty-Niner
By
Karl Peterson
On-line Forty-Niner
A
strong showing as host of the Baden Thanksgiving
Tournament propelled the Long Beach State
women's volleyball team from a bubble team
to one that will play Kansas in the first
round of the NCAA Tournament Thursday at
4 p.m. in Malibu.
Head
coach Brian Gimmillaro said that a 19-10
season was not exactly what he expected
from the team going into the year but the
team's record versus teams who were at one
time ranked in the top 25 warranted an invitation
to the field of 64.
UC
Berkeley head coach Rich Feller agreed even
after his team beat the 49ers.
"That's
a good team, a team that should make the
playoffs," Feller said. "I could
not believe (LBSU) lost some of the games
they did after seeing them tonight."
The
Beach, who may be playing as well as it
has all season, went 2-1 in its tournament.
The lone loss of the weekend was to No.
8 ranked UC Berkeley Bears in four games
(26-30, 20-30, 31-29, 26-30).
If
the 49ers can beat the Jayhawks Thursday,
the team would face the winner of the Pepperdine/Manhattan
match which would likely be national powerhouse
Pepperdine in Malibu. Looking even further
forward, if the 49ers were able to advance
past Pepperdine, the team will have a chance
to compete in front of a home crowd because
The Pyramid will host a NCAA Regional Dec.
12-13.
The
49ers seemed overmatched from the get-go
losing the first two games decisively, but
after the break the team came out with new
confidence that incited the crowd of 1,632.
The 49ers took the third game and were in
control in the fourth before a 9-0 run stunted
the team's confidence and moved Cal into
the drivers seat for the final game win.
The
Beach was unable to stop Mia Jerkov, a standout
player in the Pac-10, who tallied a match
high 33 kills and added 11 digs. Gimmillaro
said that the 49ers' game plan was to have
someone standing next to Jerkov every time
she approached the net for a kill, but the
execution of that plan failed.
LBSU
Libero Heather Laudato had 16 digs for The
Beach and now sits atop the all-time single
season digs list with 426 and counting.
Friday
the 49ers won both of its games beating
Texas Christian University handily in straight
games in the afternoon match, (30-16, 30-27,
30-16) and No. 9 ranked Georgia Tech University
in the evening match, (30-18, 26-30, 30-27,
21-30, 15-12).
The
win over Georgia Tech most likely was the
game that propelled the team into the playoffs
because the 49ers proved that it can beat
the best teams in the nation.
All
of the worry about making the playoffs may
have been unjustified because six teams
from the Big West Conference were selected
to compete in the postseason, including
teams that finished behind The Beach in
the conference standings.
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