By snoadmin
Despite playing close matches this weekend, the Long Beach State’s men’s volleyball team could not pull out with a win against No. 13 USC or No. 1 Pepperdine.
On Thursday, No. 8 LBSU (11-11, 6-10) took on the Trojans (10-11, 7-9) at The Walter Pyramid. Although the 49ers were close in all the games, USC snapped LBSU’s four-game winning streak and won the match 32-30, 30-28 and 30-24.
In the match against Pepperdine (18-1, 14-1) on Saturday, the 49ers let a two-game lead slip away as they lost 23-30, 33-35, 30-20, 33-31, 15-12.
Against USC, Paul Lotman led the 49ers with 12 kills. Dan Alexander had 10 kills and hit a .500 attacking percentage, while Norm Hutton had nine kills and five digs. Overall, LBSU hit .189 for the night.
The Trojans were led by Juan Figueroa, who had a game-high 18 kills. C.J. Schellenberg contributed with 11 kills, while Jimmy Killian had 42 assists and led the Trojans Series slips away from Dirtbags to hit .393 overall.
Against the Waves Saturday, Lotman led the 49ers with 20 kills and hit .231 overall. Both Alexander and Fabry had 17 kills, while Teddy Liles had 16. Connor Eaton had 63 assists and led the 49ers with a .241 attacking percentage.
Pepperdine’s Paul Carroll had the game high of 32 kills and 10 digs. J.D. Schleppenbach complemented with 15 kills, while Jonathan Wilder had 67 assists.
In the first game, LBSU never let Pepperdine take the lead after the first two serves.
In the second game, the two teams back and forth with the lead before Long Beach had a 14-10 run. In the end, however, LBSU pulled it by two.
In the third game, Pepperdine took the initiative and never looked back, as it cruised to a 10-point win.
In the fourth game, LBSU attempted to pull it out while fighting and drawing the game out. But in the end Pepperdine won with an error by Lotman.
In the fifth game, Long Beach was never able to gain the lead and Pepperdine again won on an error, this time by Fabry.
The 49ers will return to action on Thursday and Friday against BYU in Utah.
