Women’s Volleyball: Hot-hitting Tigers halt 49er streak at seven
The 49er women’s volleyball team fell to Pacific 25-16, 22-25, 25-22, 25-22, Saturday night at the Alex G. Spanos Center, putting an end to its seven-match winning streak.
Senior Naomi Washington had 20 kills on .333 hitting to lead The Beach. Caitlin Ledoux posted 16 kills and Brittney Herzog added 11 to join Washington in double-figures as LBSU (11-4, 4-1 Big West Conference) dropped its first conference match of the season.
UOP (14-3, 4-2 Big West) hit at a .366 clip the entire match, which included a lights-out .517 team hitting percentage in the Tigers’ decisive first set win.
Tiger outside hitter Mallori Gibson hammered out 21 kills on .400 hitting, while Svenja Engelhardt contributed 20 at a .459 pace. Setter Olivia Riley dished out a match-high 63 assists as three UOP players hit over .400 for the match.
The 49ers return to action next Friday at 7 p.m. when they travel to face UC Irvine.
Women’s Tennis: Trio of ‘Niners shine at Fullerton Invitational
Jaklin Alawi, Rachel Manasse, and Julie Luzar all turned in dominant performances at the Fullerton Invitational over the weekend for the 49er women’s tennis team.
The doubles tandem of Alawi and Manasse capped off the weekend by capturing the Flight A title with a 9-7 victory over Cal Poly on Sunday. After being down 7-4, Alawi and Manasse rallied to take the contest over the duo of Brittany Blalock and Steffi Wong.
Meanwhile, Luzar collected her second individual title of the fall season when she defeated the Mustangs’ Jocelyn Davis 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in Flight B. The sophomore is 8-0 this season.
The Beach ends the fall season with the ITA West Regionals in San Diego on Oct. 22.
Men’s Water Polo: 49ers split final day of UCI Invitational
The No. 8 men’s water polo team took sixth place, out of 16 teams, in the UC Irvine Invitational after splitting two matches on Sunday.
Jeff Greenwood led the ‘Niners (6-6) with three of his 10 tournament goals in a 12-11 sudden-death loss to No. 7 Pepperdine. The Waves put the match away when former actor Clayton Snyder scored a goal 45 seconds into the sudden-death period. Snyder had a role in the popular Disney TV series Lizzie McGuire.
Earlier in the day The Beach knocked off No. 6 UC Santa Barbara, 10-9. Jordan Koeppen led the 49ers with a season-high four goals in the contest. Goalie Derek Wiebe-Bailey allowed just two goals in the second half for LBSU.
UCLA 16, LBSU 6
Long Beach State fell to No. 2 UCLA, 16-6, in its second match on Saturday at the UC Irvine Invitational.
Jeff Greenwood and Matt Farrington led the 49ers with two goals apiece. The Bruins were paced by a hat trick from Ben Hohl, while Tyler Jemmett and Brett Hays each chipped in a pair.
The Beach fell into a 6-1 hole in the first period and was unable to recover. Twelve different UCLA players made it into the scoring column.
LBSU 9, Navy 8 (OT)
The Beach was able to hang on for a 9-8 sudden death overtime win over Navy in the morning game.
Justin Koeppen delivered the game-winner on LBSU’s first possession of the overtime period. Greenwood led the 49ers with a hat trick, while Alexsandr Petrovic netted two goals.
‘Niner goalkeeper Derek Wiebe-Bailey stopped 18 shots in the match.
