By After an up-and-down weekend to open up the season, Long Beach State gets back in the win column with a 3-1 victory against the previously undefeated Indiana Hoosiers at the Walter Pyramid in front of the home crowd.
“It’s the first time that Long Beach has beaten a Big Ten team in eight years,” Long Beach coach Hildebrand said.
The teams battled back and forth, trading points early to start the first set. Long Beach State was only able to squeeze out a 3-point lead, which was the largest of the set, thanks to a 5-0 run to make it 7-4. Indiana managed to always remain within striking distance, continuously battling back against The Beach.
“I’ve been in the Big Ten for a long time and that is the toughest conference in America, and it’s not close,” Hildebrand said following the game, “They battle all the time and that team is going to do some damage in the Big Ten.”
Long Beach State was able to narrowly edge out a victory of the first set 28-26.
The second set was no different as these evenly matched squads continued to counter each team’s best blows. No team was able to jump out to a sizable lead with Long Beach’s biggest lead only spiking up to four.
The offense was led by graduate senior outside/opposite hitter Katie Kennedy, who tallied 4 of her 13 kills in this set, propelling Long Beach to escape with a 25-23 set victory.
Long Beach State went into the third set looking for the sweep but was unable to do so after being in control for the majority of the set. Indiana grabbed their first lead of the set when ace by outside hitter Mady Saris made it 21-20.
A controversial overruling gave a point to Indiana, making the score 24-23, before they would finish off the set point and win it 25-23.
CSULB jumped out to a 6-2 lead to get the 4th set underway. The offense began to click on all cylinders during this set as Long Beach would see their largest lead grow to 10, taking a commanding 21-10 lead.
Indiana did not go down easy as they ran off six straight points of their own to get the lead down to as low as four.
Backed by red-shirt junior Abby Karich‘s match-leading 14 kills, The Beach was able to prevail and took the set by a score of 25-21.
Following the game, Karich said, “Being able to play free, for a coaching staff that has confidence in me, and girls that have confidence in me.”
The team will have a quick turnaround as they host Washington at 7 p.m. It is their first of two Pac-12 opponents on the schedule this season, with The Beach facing UCLA Sept. 2.
