By snoadmin
The Big West Conference has a new women’s volleyball champion.
No. 25 Long Beach State swept UC Riverside in three sets (25-14, 25-18, 25-13) Thursday night at the Walter Pyramid to win at least a share of the Big West title.
LBSU (23-4, 12-2) started the match a little shaky, with UCR (8-20, 3-10) taking the early 3-0 lead. However, the 49ers quickly took and went on to hit .452 over UCR’s .100 attack clip in the first set.
The 49ers continued their momentum into sets two and three, responding to the Highlander attack with great digging and blocking, and hitting above .400. LBSU played their best in set three, hitting .474.
“We played with more intensity and with more respect for the other team in the third set,” head coach Brian Gimmillaro said.
Gimmillaro also attributed the team’s inconsistencies to the rigorous game schedule that is starting to wear them down.
“At times we played very well and at times we didn’t,” he said. “We made some mistakes that we shouldn’t have tonight.”
Senior setter Nicole Vargas guided the 49er attack with 45 assists, while freshman outside hitter Caitlin Ledoux let the team in kills with 14. Quincy Verdin came away with 10 kills and Naomi Washington recorded nine. Ledoux and Vargas also had two service aces apiece.
The player of the game, senior libero Iris Murray, led the 49er defense with 12 digs and freshman defense specialist Lauren Minkel recorded 10 digs.
The 49ers played their fourth consecutive match without sophomore outside hitter Ashley Lee, who is recovering from a partial posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) tear she suffered diving for a ball during the election night game against CS Fullerton.
LBSU will play on the road next week, finishing its conference schedule with CS Northridge and CS Fullerton.
If Fullerton and Northridge give even a semblance of a challenge next week, I will be quite surprised. Well done, ladies.
GO BEACH!
Chalk another conference title to our slate this year.