Beach fall to Matadors, rebound against Pacific

Volleyball • Senior Jillian Mazzarella is setting the ball during Friday's match against Cal State Northridge in The Pyramid. Yulian Danusastro/Online Forty-Niner

 

By Henry Montemayor
Online Forty-Niner
Staff Writer

The women's volleyball team split two matches over the weekend with both matches going the full five games each. After being edged out by the Cal State Northridge Matadors (30-17, 23-30, 25-30, 30-25, 12-15) Friday, the team bounced back to defeat the Pacific Tigers (30-26, 23-30, 20-30, 30-19, 15-11) Saturday in The Pyramid.

Alexis Crimes and Makini Thomson led the 49ers in kills with 22 kills and 16 kills, respectively – both career highs.

Setter Jillian Mazarella posted a double-double for the second night in a row with a career-high 67 assists and 17 digs. Heather Ludato chipped in 20 or more digs for the second night in a row with a match-high 23 digs. Ashley Groothius led Pacific with 23 digs for the match.

The Beach tied at 23-23 rallied and used a 7-3 run to win the first set 30-23. Crimes registered six of her 22 kills in the first set. The Beach's hitting percentage was a mere .200. Pacific didn't fare any better, hitting only .140.

Pacific then caught fire and won the next two sets, 23-30 and 20-30. In Game Two, Pacific posted kills often, for a .462 percentage. The Tigers opened up the set with a 12-3 lead and never looked back. Long Beach was able to close the gap at 20-25, but that was the end of their run as Pacific closed out the set, 30-23.

The momentum continued in Pacific's favor in Game Three, as the Tigers were once again able to hit above .450 for the second straight set, hitting a .469 percentage. Groothius recorded eight more kills, bringing her total to 20 for the match.

The Beach bounced back in the fourth game. Crimes led the 49ers' attack by recording seven kills in the set. The Beach posted its match-best hitting percentage at a .341 clip. Pacific cooled down to a .083 attack percentage in the game. Trailing 15-17, The Beach went on a 8-1 run to bring the score to 23-18, then finished Pacific off with another 7-1 run, ending the game with the final score of 30-19, forcing a fifth and deciding set, which The Beach won 15-11. The Beach upped its record to 15-4 (7-4 in the Big West) while Pacific fell to 11-7(8-3 in the Big West).

Friday night, The Beach lost its first home match of the year to Cal State Northridge.

Robin Miramontes led The Beach attack with a career-high 21 kills. Crimes and Dyanne Lawlor added 14 kills and 11 kills, respectively. Jillian Mazzarella posted a double-double with 61 assists and 13 digs, while Ludato recorded 20 digs. Jen Ryan and Delaney Menell led the Matadors to the five-game victory with 27 kills and 23 kills, respectively.

The Beach opened up Game One strongly with a 9-0 run, behind Natalie Uhart's five kills and Lawlor's four kills. The Beach hit .400 during the first game. Mazzarella added 14 assists in the mix a the Matadors hit only .086 (12-9-35) and committed three service errors.

Cal State Northridge bounced back to claim the next two games, behind Ryan's nine kills in the second game. The Matadors opened Game Two with a 5-0 run. The Beach was able to close the gap as close as 13-16, but wasn't able to close it any further, as the Matadors took Game Two, 23-30.

Ryan and Menell combined for 10 kills in Game Three to lead the Matadors to a 25-30 victory. Once again, the Matadors had another quick start up 10-6 before The Beach was able to respond. The Matadors pushed the lead even more to 20-15, and eventually won the set 30-25.

The Beach was able to stay alive and force a fifth game in the match by virtue of a 30-25 fourth-set win. Miramontes led the charge as she recorded nine of her 16 kills in the match. Menell added seven of her kills for the Matadors in the game. The Beach, however wasn't able to take advantage of its second chance and lost the fifth game.

The Beach will hit the road and continue conference play next weekend as it visits the University of Idaho Thursday and Utah State on Saturday.