MONDAY, APRIL 26, 1999

The Beach gets revenge

By Greg Hanson

On-line Forty-Niner

The Long Beach State men's volleyball team wanted revenge and received it with its first round Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament victory over UC Irvine on Saturday night.

The second-ranked 49ers blew the 10th-ranked Anteaters - who were making their first ever appearance in the MPSF Tournament - away in three games, 15-7, 15-10, 15-6 in front of 1,409 in The Pyramid.

On March 31 in Irvine, when the 49ers were ranked No. 1 in the nation, the Anteaters swept the 49ers, handing them their second loss of the season.

On Saturday, The Beach came out firing and displayed its biggest intensity it had shown all season.

"We were very embarrassed about that loss," said 49er outside hitter Curtis Jackson about the Irvine loss. "We didn't want to just beat them tonight, we wanted to beat them bad."

The Beach built up an 11-4 lead in the first game before winning 15-7. Outside hitter David McKienzie had 10 kills for the 49ers in that game.

The second game was more of the same. McKienzie had 10 kills again and the Anteaters couldn't get it together in the third game, losing 15-6.

McKienzie finished the match with 25 kills. Outside hitter Jim Polster had 17 kills and middle blocker Matt Prosser had 12 to go along with eight blocks and a .474 hitting percentage. Jackson had seven kills and 11 digs and setter Chris Seiffert had 62 assists.

The 49ers outhit the Anteaters .361 to .174 in the match and also had the advantage in digs, 38 to 23.

"We had really good practices all week and we were really motivated," Prosser said. "The way we were playing tonight is how we should have been playing when we were number one. We knew what we had to do and we did it. Hopefully we can keep this going all the way through."

Forty-Niner coach Ray Ratelle said that a lot of the credit for the win should go to the assistant coaches who came up with the game plan.

"We did what we talked about doing all week long," said 49er coach Ray Ratelle.

The 49ers will make their way to Provo, Utah for the second round of the MPSF Tournament. The Beach's next match will be in Provo on Thursday at 4 p.m. against USC. The Trojans beat Pepperdine on Saturday night, 15-7, 11-15, 15-9, 15-6.

Brigham Young, the No. 1 team in the nation, will host the last two rounds of the tournament.