49ers finish fall season with two wins

Volleyball • Junior Tyler Hildebrand (#5) passes the ball to junior Duncan Budinger during an exhibition match in The Pyramid Saturday. Yulian Danusastro/Online Forty-Niner

 

By Claire Howie
Online Forty-Niner
Staff Writer

The five-week fall season gave Long Beach State's men's volleyball Head Coach Alan Knipe an opportunity to see the depth of the team, and the talent on the bench.

"I thought [the fall season] was good; we got a lot of playing time for a lot of our guys," Knipe said. "We had a lot of guys that hadn't played in real competition for us yet, so overall I am pretty happy with the fall."The team hosted its annual fall tournament to close out the fall season Saturday. The tournament lasted all day and in addition to Long Beach State the tournament featured the University of Southern California, California Baptist University and UC Irvine.

The Beach went 2-2 for the tournament finishing strong with two wins.

A few 49ers made their first appearance in a home game during the first match of the tournament. The 49ers' B-squad suffered a 2-1 (30-24, 24-30, 12-15) loss to the UCI Anteaters to open the tournament.

The 49ers played their remaining three matches as one team, combining starters and B-squad players on the court throughout the afternoon.

Match two saw two highly skilled Hagstrom's against each other. 49er Nate Hagstrom was not just playing against Cal Baptist, he was playing against his little brother Tyler, a standout player at CBU. CBU and the younger Hagstrom came out with the win, defeating the 49ers 2-1 (30-22, 29-31, 11-15).

LBSU was not willing to end the fall season with two losses. The Beach stepped it up a notch to defeat USC 2-0 (30-19, 30-20) in their third match of the day. Overall the team appeared to be playing much more consistent, making fewer errors than in the pervious two matches.

The first three matches of the day were scheduled virtually back-to-back; UCI at 10 a.m., CBU at noon and USC at 2 p.m., the four-hour scheduling gap between the third and last matches was a welcome break for the 49ers.

At 6 p.m. the 49ers' full squad played in the feature match of the evening against UCI. Unlike the rest of the day's matches, this one was played best of five. Two and a half hours later the Beach had concluded their fall season with a 3-2 (30-26, 24-30, 30-25, 30-26, 15-8) win over the Anteaters.

"Overall, I think we played well, we just need to work on the little things," team captain Nate Hagstrom said.

"We need to work on our ability to continue to play at a level we say is acceptable," Knipe said. "Meaning energy level, focus level, aggression and being able to dictate the tempo of the match by how hard we play. Today we started off so-so with that, we got a lot better as the tournament went on. I think that when we play like we train in the gym, which is real hard, we're a real good team."

It is essential for the 49ers to spend the winter season fixing all the little things and strengthening their overall game. According to Coach Knipe, "Our conference (Big West) is the best in the country. There are 12 teams in the Big West and all of them will be ranked in the top 20 in the nation."

The team is looking to out do last year's performance and bring a national championship home to The Pyramid.