The race for the Big West Conference women’s volleyball championship is now down to two teams after Friday night’s action.
Long Beach State moved a step closer to the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament with a sweep over UC Riverside at the Walter Pyramid. The 49ers won the match, 25-18, 25-15, 25-22, to record their eighth three-set victory in league play.
LBSU (18-7, 11-4 Big West) will host UC Irvine (22-6, 11-4 Big West) for the Big West crown Saturday night. First serve is scheduled for 7 p.m.
The Anteaters defeated the ‘Niners in a sloppy, five-set affair in mid-October.
Head coach Brian Gimmillaro isn’t so much concerned with how UCI plays as he is with how his own team performs.
“I know what [UCI] did successfully against us and I know what we did unsuccessfully against them,” he said. “My feeling is that if you play well … just doing what you do, but your strategies to affect the other team have to come into play tomorrow night.”
Lauren Minkel was one of three 49ers to record double-digit digs in the victory over the Highlanders. Minkel finished with a team-high 16, followed by Caitlin Ledoux’s 12 and Laura Schuck’s 10.
“[Gimmillaro] told us that it’s an opportunity,” Minkel said about tomorrow night’s conference title match. “It’s so exciting to be in this position. We’re at home. Not a lot of teams get this opportunity to get a bid to the playoffs and win the Big West championship. It’s in our hands now and that’s the exciting part.”
Ledoux, who had a career-high 33 kills in the previous meeting with UCR, made just four tonight but added a pair of solo and assisted blocks. Fifth-year senior Naomi Washington led the squad with 11 kills and Jocelyn Neely chipped in with nine.
UCR (6-20, 3-12 Big West) was paced by Amanda Nilsson’s match-high 19 digs but committed 22 hitting errors to LBSU’s 11.
The Highlanders battled in the third set, climbing out of a 19-15 hole to tie the frame at 19. However, the 49ers were bailed out with three consecutive UCR hitting errors before finishing off the match.
The Beach used a block party to roll to a 25-15 victory in set two.
The ‘Niners recorded five team blocks in the frame, including one solo and two assisted denials from Ledoux. LBSU, which never trailed in the set, also hit a match-high .387 in the set led by Washington’s five kills on eight swings (.625 attack).
“The whole team is getting better blocking. Caitlin blocked very well,” Gimmillaro said.
The 49ers’ blocking and Highlanders’ hitting errors resulted in a 25-18 first-set win for LBSU.
“When the blocking is doing well, the serving is doing well, it makes it easier to dig,” Minkel said.
UCR committed eight attack miscues for a lowly .071 percentage, while the ‘Niners made four team blocks — including a pair of them from Ashley Lee and Brittney Herzog in the same rally to put the 49ers ahead 13-8 before trading points for most of the remainder of the set.
After tomorrow night’s Big West finale, the ‘Niners will close the regular season with a two-day, four-match Thanksgiving weekend tournament at the Walter Pyramid. The Beach will face Texas Christian University (noon) and UNLV (7 p.m.) next Friday before taking on Loyola Marymount (noon) and Utah (7:30 p.m.) next Saturday.