By No. 11 Long Beach State women’s volleyball (18-10) picked up a pair of ranked wins, including an upset 3-2 victory against the top-ranked Big West rival No. 6 Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Mustangs on the second day of the Best in the West Tournament in Laguna Beach on Sunday.
The junior duo of Malia Gementera/Taylor Hagenah had a dominant tournament showing, going 4-0 on the weekend.
This season, they have accumulated three Big West Volleyball Pair Of The Week awards and one AVCA National Pair Of The Week award, making them the winningest duo in LBSU history.
Today, the pair reached their 86th win together against No. 16 University of North Florida.
“We’ve been partners since freshman year, and we’re also roommates and best friends, so I feel like that adds a lot to our chemistry because we communicate and we’re on the same page about everything,” Gementera said.
LBSU’s first flight duo fought narrowly with Cal Poly pair Piper Ferch/Erin Inskeep, with neither team taking a lead greater than one until the final score.
A thunderous attack from Hagenah was too powerful for Ferch, setting up a set point that was followed by an errant attack from Ferch that gave The Beach the set 21-19.
In the second, the clutch play of Gementera/Hagenah was again the difference as Gementera had a spectacular diving dig that caught the Mustang defense out of position, leading to a set-sealing kill to win it 21-18.
After LBSU’s Demi Wagdy/Megan Widener won in straight sets as well, Cal Poly took the next two dual points, setting up the third flight as the tiebreaker.
After splitting the first two sets, The Beach’s tandem of Skyler Germann/Natalie Glenn initially trailed 9-6 in the pivotal third, but the duo caught fire with a 6-1 run to respond.
Glenn cashed in on their regained momentum with a spike that found itself just within the backline to win the final set 15-12, giving The Beach their first victory over the Mustangs in three tries this season.
“Our Achilles heel has been finding a way to finish some of these close ones, so it’s pretty poetic that it came down to that,” LBSU head coach Mike Campbell said.
Following their upset win, LBSU routed North Florida 4-1, with all four wins in straight sets. Wagdy/Widener narrowly won 21-19 in both of their sets, gaining the clinching dual point for LBSU.
The Beach ended the Best in the West Tournament with a 3-1 record and scored just their second win of the season against a top-10 opponent, Cal Poly, after previously being 1-8 in said matchups.
“For us, it’s always about peaking at the right time,” Campbell said. “We’ve been on this top 10 plateau, and we just need to take ourselves into that top five range to get some belief going into conference and NCAA [championships].”
LBSU will next compete in the Husky Invitational in Seattle, starting on Friday against No. 20 Florida International University.
