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Long Beach State drops final road game

Long Beach State sophomore outside hitter Hailey Harward spikes the ball in the 49ers match against UC Davis at the Walter Pyramid.
Long Beach State sophomore outside hitter Hailey Harward spikes the ball in the 49ers match against UC Davis at the Walter Pyramid.

The Stan Sheriff Center was jam-packed with an electrifying crowd of 8,631 for Hawai’i’s senior night in a Saturday night game in which the home team dominated Long Beach State in a casual sweep. The women’s volleyball team looked like mere spectators to the festive events due to the team’s underwhelming performance.

LBSU (7-19, 4-9 Big West) dropped its final road match of the season, suffering a 25-14, 25-11, 25-10 sweep against the University of Hawai’i (18-7, 12-2 Big West).

“We struggled with our serve receive game and our side out game,” senior outside hitter Megan Kruidhof said. “We weren’t clicking as a team and that’s about it—it wasn’t very good.”

From the start of the match, the 49ers looked rattled and completely out of focus. There were sparks of life during the first set, but it was clear that the team had already checked out and packed its bags by the end. It was a one-sided match with no intensity coming from the 49ers.

Hawai’i feasted on Long Beach’s lack of defense, gaining easy points with quick kills. The 49ers did not get to their spots to defend the ball, creating a huge point gap they could not dig themselves out of.

Hitting was another problem for the team, connecting on an abysmal .097 in the first set, with only marginal improvements later as they hit .114 and .081 in the next two sets. The team was only able to gather 21 kills throughout the match to the Rainbow Wahine’s 56. The huge discrepancy between both teams ultimately destroyed Long Beach’s chances.

Hawai’i commanded the floor with an impressive .472 hitting percentage in the third set, while limiting the 49ers to only 10 points.

Long Beach had no answers for the Rainbow Wahine, and were sent home with a disappointing loss to the long time rival.

Sophomore outside hitter Hailey Harward led the team with six kills and 14 digs, while redshirt senior and libero Rachel Nieto added 10 digs in the match.

Hawai’i’s senior middle hitter Emily Maglio led her team with 19 kills on an impressive hitting percentage of .630.

The 49ers say aloha to Hawai’i, and come home to the comfort of the Walter Pyramid to finish their last three games of the season.

Long Beach looks to get back on track at 7 p.m. on Friday at the Walter Pyramid against UC Riverside and Cal State Fullerton at 7 p.m Saturday.

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