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49ers
sweep past CSU Northridge, fall in four
to UC Santa Barbara
By
Claire Howie
Online Forty-Niner
Staff Writer
The
49ers' men's volleyball team was plagued
with inconsistent play this past week as
they hosted conference rivals in Mountain
Pacific Sports Federation.
On
Wednesday night, No. 4-ranked Long Beach
State (9-5, 7-4 MPSF) swept the No. 10-ranked
Cal State Northridge Matadors in three games,
30-21, 30-24, 30-27.
The
Beach showed its inconsistency, as they
fell to No. 5-ranked UC Santa Barbara on
Friday night. The 49ers were out-served
and out-blocked, losing to the Gauchos 3-1,
30-22, 22-30, 32-24, 30-20.
LBSU
came out strong as they jumped on CSUN early,
taking the first two games 30-21 and 30-24.
However, in game three, the Matadors controlled
the lead up until 26 when LBSU finally managed
to pull ahead 27-26. CSUN tied it up once
more at 27 only to have the 49ers end the
game with a 3-0 scoring run to close out
the match.
LBSU
out-hit CSUN .398 to .209 for the evening,
and totaled 9.5 team blocks, compared to
the Matadors 7.0.
The
tables were turned Friday night when The
Beach took on UCSB. The 49ers took the first
game 30-22, out-hitting the Gauchos .533
to .333. UCSB would not be discouraged though,
as they out-hit LBSU in the next three matches
to secure the win.
Overall,
the 49ers hit .381 and had 3.5 team blocks,
while UCSB hit .446 for the match and tallied
13.0 team blocks.
49er
Head Coach Alan Knipe was less disappointed
about the loss than the lack of intensity
displayed by his team.
"I'm
not necessarily too upset that we lost the
match, but the one thing I'm not real happy
with was game four," he said. "We
still have a game to play. We still could
have won the match. We needed to let game
three go and play game four. We didn't do
that [Friday] and we were dragging game
three around with us. It's a tough thing
to get over when you have it right there,
you should win it and you don't."
Despite
the loss, junior outside hitter Robert Tarr
played well in both matches. He posted 22
kills against the Matadors and 26 against
the Gauchos. Tarr also contributed two aces,
eight digs and three blocks over the weekend.
"The
key for Tarr is that he's figured out how
to go what he considers his full speed all
the time," Knipe said. "By us
bringing him up from passing, he now can
concentrate on hitting and blocking, so
you're starting to see the emergence of
all the athleticism he has."
Other
49ers making an impact included setter Tyler
Hildebrand. In addition to adding five kills
in the match against the Matadors, breaking
his old career high of four, Hildebrand
notched 102 assists over the weekend.
Middle
blockers Yassir Sliti and Duncan Budinger
totaled 22 and 17 kills respectively in
the two games.
Redshirt
freshmen Paul Lotman proved he deserved
his newly acquired starting position when
he hit .417 against UCSB.
"Paul
Lotman's been starting because he came off
the bench three different times, and all
the times he came off the bench in a match
he upgraded us," Knipe said. "He's
a real good passer and it helps our offense."
The
49ers will travel to Northern California
for matches against conference opponents
Pacific and Stanford on Friday and Saturday
respectively.
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