49ers
net easy victory on senior night
By
Paul DeCarlo
Daily-Forty-Niner
Senior
night is supposed to be easy. But in the
Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, nothing
comes easy and any opponent would've loved
to spoil Saturday's festivities in The Pyramid.
Even with a few lineup changes in favor
of seniority, the No. 2 ranked Long Beach
State men's volleyball team handed UC San
Diego a straight set defeat (30-28, 30-27,
30-26).
"Anytime
you can beat an MPSF team in three,"
said head coach Alan Knipe, "it's always
a good win. Those guys deserved to be out
there, they deserved the right to start
and they did a great job."
Scott
Touzinsky led The Beach with 17 kills and
eight digs. Outside hitter Jeff Wootton
added 12 kills and seven digs, while Clint
Coe had 11 kills. Robert Kijewski filled
in as setter and totaled 42 assists for
the contest.
Kijewski
and Touzinsky have known each other since
their sophomore year of high school and
relished an opportunity to get some good
time in together on the court.
"I can't remember the last time that
it was all of us (seniors) playing together,"
Touzinsky said. "Things were a little
shaky from time to time, but it was fun.
I'm glad that (Knipe) gave (Kijewski) the
chance to set. It was really special for
me."
The
cellar-dwelling Tritons (8-20, 4-18) made
things quite interesting in each match,
keeping right with The Beach and even taking
the lead on a number of occasions. San Diego
battled back to tie the first match at 28
all on two key kills from Adam Toren and
Andy Rupp, but Long Beach State closed it
out on a key block from Duncan Budinger,
who had eight for the night, and a Touzinsky
kill.
In
the second frame, Long Beach State serving
errors began to pile up, but the Tritons
couldn't capitalize. Jeff Urton played well
defensively with nine digs and Toren finished
with 10 kills for the Tritons. With a tie
score of 24 in the third game, The Beach
scored four unanswered points and let San
Diego errors finish the match.
"At
this point in the season there's not a ton
to change," said Knipe. "We have
a number of good days to train. We can't
really control what Santa Barbara is going
to do or not do. All we can control is our
side."
In
the opening round of the MPSF playoffs in
The Pyramid on April 24 at 7:30 p.m., Long
Beach State will meet up with seventh seeded
UC Santa Barbara, who beat the 49ers in
their first go-round at Santa Barbara. Back
on April 10 at home, The Beach got some
revenge by taking the Gauchos down in four
sets.
"It's
exiting because we're coming into the playoffs
at No. 2," Coe said. "It's nice
to go out this way and hopefully we'll end
up in Hawaii."
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