Long Beach spikes Pacific

By Jay Seidel, On-line Forty-Niner

March 2,1998

After losing a tough five-game match to Stanford Friday night, the No. 5 Long Beach State men's volleyball team unleashed its anger Saturday afternoon on Pacific.

The Beach swept the Tigers 15-1,15-4,15-13.

"We came out looking to hurt somebody," freshman outside hitter Jim Polster said. "We were a little upset about the last match, and they're [Pacific] kind of from the same area, so we beat the hell out of them."

Polster led The Beach with 12 kills, 10 digs and hit .556.

The Beach (10-4, 4-4 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) racked up 10 kills without an error. Sophomore outside hitter Scott Faber contributed to the first game's kills and tallied 10 kills for the match. Sophomore setter Chris Seiffert had 47 assists.

Down two games, the Tigers (5-9, 2-8) mounted a comeback in the third game. Building on a 4-4 tie, Pacific pulled ahead to a 13-4 lead.

However, not to disappoint the home crowd of 348, The Beach rallied and scored 11 unanswered points.

"It was a great comeback," 49er Coach Ray Ratelle said. "Generally when you lose your focus like that it's hard to turn it around, so this was great to see."

In Friday night's match against visiting No. 7 Stanford, The Beach lost 12-15, 15-6, 15-11, 3-15, 12-15.

The Beach had a tough time blocking the Cardinal's Andy Witt, who knocked down 38 kills and came up with 13 digs on the night.

The Beach will play host to San Diego State Tuesday night at The Pyramid.

"San Diego State's a good team," Ratelle said. "We have got to be ready."