By The Long Beach State women’s volleyball team saw its five-match winning streak snap on the first night of the three-day LBSU/LMU Tournament this past weekend.
But the team continued the weekend by sweeping the remaining three opponents.
The 49ers (8-3) fell 3-1 to undefeated Loyola Marymount (9-0) in a close match Thursday with scores of 25-21, 21-25, 25-23 and 25-22.
“It wasn’t out of fear [or] out of pressure,” said Gimmillaro. “They just wanted to do well, and right at the end we made mistakes.”
Gimmillaro said that he thought that a fifth set would seal the win for the Beach.
“I thought the other team was getting tired,” said Gimmillaro. “I thought that if we could get to a fifth set, we’re in better shape and we were okay.”
In the fourth set, both teams were tied 20-20, then LMU went on a 4-0 run. The 49ers gained two and cut the deficit by one, but couldn’t finish. The Lions were led by Litara Keil with a team-high 19 kills and four blocks. Sarah Sponcil and Caitlin DeWitt had 17 kills a piece.
The 49ers out-blocked the Lions 14-to-7, but finished with 49 kills and 25 errors compared to the Lions’ 63 kills and 33 errors.
LBSU’s Sophie Bukovec led her team with 12 kills and a .233 hitting percentage, while Alex Reid racked up 10 kills.
The ‘Niners came back the next two days and dominated Northern Colorado (4-5), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (4-7) and Saint Mary’s (4-5).
The Beach played the UNC Bears on Friday and even though the 49ers defeated the Bears 25-16, 25-18 and 25-21, Gimmillaro wasn’t impressed with his team’s effort.
“We’re just not playing very well,” Gimmillaro said. “It’s that everybody wants to play so well, nobody’s relaxed enough to play well enough.”
Bukovec said the energy in the match wasn’t there from the start.
“I think it was a little bit slow in the first two sets, and I started connecting better with Jenelle [Hudson] in the third,” Bukovec said. “The energy definitely started to rise after we had our little debrief after the second set.”
This was senior middle blocker Chisom Okpala’s second game returning after pulling her abdominal and hip flexor. She led the game with nine kills and three blocks.
During the last day, Joy Miley led the 49ers with 15 kills in the afternoon against the TAMUCC Islanders. Okpala followed with 13 kills, and senior outside hitter Bre Mackie had 11 kills and four blocks.
The 49ers had a .288 hitting percentage and held the Islanders to a .093 percentage.
Gimmillaro said the beginning of the second set of the sweep on St. Mary’s Saturday evening was the first time he saw his team relax all season.
“They just relaxed, and there was nothing the other team could do to top us,“ Gimmillaro said.
Tyler Jackson led the game with 21 digs. Reid pitched in 11 kills while Okpala finished with 10 kills and six blocks.
The 49ers will play three teams on the road in the Roadrunner Classic Volleyball Tournament next Friday and Saturday.
