In its biggest match of the year, Long Beach State looked to its best player and she responded.
Alexis Crimes, the Big West Co-Player of the Year, had 16 kills leading LBSU past Pepperdine (30-22, 30-27, 25-30 and 30-26) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at The Walter Pyramid Friday night.
Even though Crimes might be playing the best volleyball of her life lately, she is by no means complacent.
“I don’t think there is a limit to how good I can be,” Crimes said. “I’m always looking to get better.”
Crimes middle blocker partner, Mischa Hasalikova, had 11 kills and eight blocks in her first ever NCAA Tournament match.
Quincy Verdin, who has played sparingly as of late because of an injured leg, contributed with 11 kills in the win.
“My leg feels great,” Verdin said. “When you’re injured you work on other parts of your game to get better, and that helped me tonight.”
In the opening game, Pepperdine jumped out to a quick 6-2 lead before Gimmillaro called a timeout.
“I told them what was going on out there was unacceptable,” Gimmillaro said. “We had to start playing better.”
LBSU responded, scoring the next five points and holding on to win the opening game.
In game two, Pepperdine led 13-11, but LBSU came back to score nine of the next 12 points to take a lead and went on to cruise to its easiest game of the night.
Midway through game three, it looked as if LBSU was going to sweep Pepperdine, with The Beach leading 13-6. But this time it was Waves that mounted a comeback, outscoring LBSU 24-12 for the rest of the game to win by five.
The Beach was able to recover in game four, scoring the final three points of the game, which was capped off with Hasalikova slamming home the final point of the match
“When you’re down 0-2, you’re always looking to change the momentum,” said Pepperdine head coach Nina Matthies. “We had some opportunities and didn’t execute when those opportunities arose.”
LBSU (26-5) will now face No. 12 Hawaii (27-5) in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, which will be held at The Pyramid Saturday night at 7 p.m.
Hawaii beat Oregon in the opening match at The Walter Pyramid Friday night, wining 30-17, 30-17 and 30-18.
“I think without any doubt that was our best match of the season,” said Hawaii head coach Dave Shoji.
Gimmillaro was also impressed by Hawaii’s performance.
“If they block like they did tonight against us, we have no chance,” Gimmillaro said.
