Like a predator stalking its prey, the Long Beach State men’s volleyball team lunged at every opportunity to dispose of a highly-skilled Stanford team Saturday night.
The fourth-ranked 49ers (11-4, 9-3 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation defeated No. 3 Stanford (9-5, 6-5 MPSF) 25-19, 25-18 and 25-11 in the final match of a four-game home stand.
Both LBSU and Stanford were coming off of wins from the night before and were poised to keep their streaks alive.
The first serve of the night saw LBSU setting the tone with a combined block from freshman Taylor Gregory and junior Jeff Ornee. The ‘Niners then backed up their electric start with another Gregory block and two kills from junior Taylor Crabb.
Stanford was able to battle back from a 9-3 deficit and build a run of its own with a pair of blocks from sophomore Spencer Haly that narrowed the margin 12-11 in favor of Long Beach.
The first set saw both teams hitting abnormally low percentages.
“I thought it was a little bit ugly early on both sides,” LBSU head coach Alan Knipe said.
The ‘Niners were able to clean up their play toward the end of the first set with two kills from Ornee. This led to senior Colton Echave knocking in a pair of kills past Stanford defenders, giving LBSU a 25-19 win in the first set.
In the second set of the night Stanford came out aggressively with precision serves of its own that left the 49ers in an early hole.
Kills from Stanford’s Steven Irwin and Brian Cook were enough to maintain a Cardinal lead until LBSU sparked a comeback with Crabb and Ammerman kills.
The two teams battled neck-and-neck until Crabb added his fifth kill of the set midway through, extending the 49ers lead 18-15.
Colton Echave, who had six kills on the night, distanced the ‘Niners further, giving them a five-point lead.
With set point on the line, Taylor Crabb dropped back to send a punishing serve over the net that was mishandled by Stanford. Ammerman quickly responded with a powerful put back kill that gave his team a 25-18 win and a 2-0 lead in the match.
Ammerman’s serving dominance combined with his hitting ability was enough to prevent any possible streaks from Stanford.
“We have a saying, ‘Smelling blood in the water’, kind of like sharks,” Ammerman said. “We can’t let down on our opponents. Stanford’s a really good team and we’ve got to respect those guys 100 percent. They can always come back.”
The third and final set of the night saw LBSU swiftly jumping in front and never looking back.
Crabb’s high-flying seven kills paced his team in the final set as the ‘Niners hit .762 percent.
The final point of the night saw Crabb giving all-out effort with a lunging dig pass to junior Connor Olbright, who assisted Gregory for the final kill of the night and gave LBSU a convincing 25-11 win.
While Crabb led his team with 15 kills on the night, it was the serve/kill combo present in all three sets from Dalton Ammerman that gave LBSU the extra control it was looking for.
“We’ve had a whole bunch of situations this year where Dalton has served us in crucial times,” Knipe said. “He has the ability to hit it hard, but the best thing of all is that he has the ability to locate it on different guys.”
LBSU will play its next game at Cal State Northridge at 7 p.m. on Friday.
