By Passing and serving were Long Beach’s downfall against Hawai’i Saturday night as it fell in three consecutive sets. The team committed 11 serving errors and exhibited poor communication throughout the night, allowing the Rainbow Wahines to dominate 25-19, 21-25, 17-25, 19-25.
“When our main service is on serve and pass and you miss that many serves, it’s hard to win the serve and pass game,” junior outside hitter Hailey Harward said. “For us it’s just picking our spots and being precise with where we’re aiming and getting this other team, a great passing team out of its system.”
The 49ers started the night off strong and held a 13-5 lead on the ‘Bows behind senior outside hitter Tyler Spriggs’ eight kills. Their impressive play only lasted one set however, before the team lost focus and dropped the next three sets in a row.
“I thought we came out really strong and attacked Hawai’i, but they came back with some answers, and we didn’t win the serve and pass game and that’s the key for us,” head coach Joy McKienzie-Fuerbringer said. “I’m disappointed that we didn’t come out aggressive.”
Although the team was able to keep the sets close with some back and forth action, Hawai’i pulled ahead each time. The game marked the fourth in a row that the team was only able to shave one set off of their opponents.
“The game is never over until one team has three sets, and sometimes I feel like we find ourselves a little frazzled in these situations,” Spriggs said.
The team had a difficult time spreading its offense throughout the game, as only two players reached double digit kills and four didn’t get on the offensive boards at all. Spriggs led with 18 kills while Harward racked up 10 kills and one block.
Long Beach will try to snap its four-game losing streak 7 p.m. Friday against UC Riverside.
