Women's volleyball loses to UC Irvine, drops out of rankings

Volleyball • Freshman Alexis Crimes (right) and sophomore Robin Miramontes (left) will try to get the 49ers back on track against Big West Conference rival UC Santa Barbra on Saturday. Yulian Danusastro/Online Forty-Niner

 

By Wendalyn Lazarte
Online Forty-Niner
Staff Writer

The 49ers lost to Big West Conference opponent UC Irvine Thursday night 3-1, which knocked them out of the top-25 rankings.

The women's volleyball team rebounded from the loss to sweep the UC Davis Aggies in The Pyramid Saturday night.

The 49ers (13-2, 5-2) took control of the ball and left the Aggies in the dust, never giving UC Davis the chance to even the score in the beginning of the game.

The 49ers crushed the Aggies, leaving them behind by 11 points while The Beach went on to 30 in the first game.

It was a team effort as Alexis Crimes had five kills and Jillian Mazzarella had eight assists and three digs. The game only lasted 16 minutes and 10 rotations.

The Aggies woke up in the second match and battled back against the 49ers.

The 49ers scored first, but UC Davis came back to gain a three-point advantage. It started to look like the Aggies were taking control of the game when the score was 4-6, but Heather Hetzer shifted the momentum back to The Beach by posting a kill.

The 49ers used Hetzer's kill as a stepping-stone to take the lead away from UC Davis.

After a time out called by UC Davis coach Stephanie Hawbecker, the 49ers found themselves tied with the Aggies at 16-16.

Hetzer answered again for the 49ers with another kill, as did Natalie Uhart, who is playing after sitting out from a knee injury.

With Mazzarella setting and Uhart posting kills, the 49ers ran away with the game.

After another time out called by UC Davis, Crimes, who mainly racks up the kills, unexpectedly set the ball in the air for Sara Kroneberger who finished with the kill. The Beach went on to dominate the rest of the match winning 30-21.

Mazzarella posted 31 assists and 10 kills while Crimes recorded 12 kills and Kroneberger posted eight digs in the match.

With a record of 13-2 and 5-2 in the Big West the 49ers need to pick up their pace in conference play. The Beach will have the chance this upcoming weekend when they will be traveling to Cal Poly on Friday and then on to face their conference rival, the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos, on Saturday.

Head Coach Brian Gimmillaro said the task is going to be difficult, but he thinks the team is where he thought they would be by this time of the season.

"Our record is about what I thought it was going to be," he said.

Notes: The match against UC Santa Barbara will be televised on CSTV on Sunday at 3 p.m.