By snoadmin
On Saturday night at The Walter Pyramid, Cal Poly’s women’s volleyball team defeated Long Beach State 3-2 (23-30, 30-27, 31-29, 23-30, 8-15). Both teams fought hard, as a fifth game proves. Both teams were statistically well-matched coming into the match, and both teams are arguably the two strongest teams in the Big West.
There were no obvious advantages for either team, except for the fact that LBSU was playing on its home court. But as the match progressed, any fan in The Pyramid will tell you that Cal Poly had a huge advantage: referees Eric Asami and Marvin Hall.
Having played club volleyball for a couple years in high school where players from teams on a break do the officiating, I have refereed several volleyball matches. I know what to look for in each referee position, and I am well-versed in the rules and signs.
I know that when a ball hits five feet outside of the line and the left-side hitter, feet firmly planted, couldn’t have touched the ball unless she was fully outstretched in mid-air, that it is a point for the team that did not hit the ball out. I know not to even call that as a touch.
I know that when a set floats off the fingertips of a setter in one fluid motion – nowhere near her palms – perfectly to the outside hitter, it should not be called as a held ball.
And I especially know that when a middle blocker hits the ball into the net, the ball is sided out, not called out on the other team, giving the middle blocker’s team the point.
But then again, that’s just me – not Asami and Hall.
Asami and Hall obviously had it out for LBSU from the start. Game one did not go well for the 49ers; Cal Poly easily took that game and ran with it. But in game two, when there were 10 different lead changes and 17 tie scores, LBSU showed that it was very capably of beating the Mustangs. The referees, Asami most notably, began to crack down on the errors.
But Asami soon went from strictly officiating to being downright unfair, Hall as well. When looking at the error totals from each game, that doesn’t look to be the case, but if you were in The Pyramid that night you know what I’m talking about.
Cal Poly’s errors were justified: Balls were served into the net and the ball went outside of the net antenna on a kill. Many of 49ers’ “errors” were full-on fabricated at crucial times in the game to break a tie and give the Mustangs a lead or to help them catch up to the 49ers when they were behind.
Watching some of the blatantly obvious made-up calls that forced the 49ers to sideout, I couldn’t help but wonder if Asami knew what he was going to call before he called it. It was as if he thought to himself, “On Vargas’ next serve, I’m going to call a held ball,” or, “On Whitfield’s next dig, I’m going to a call a double hit.”
I was all but convinced of this until the fourth, and possibly most decisive game.
Nine errors were called against LBSU after the team took an early lead; just two were called against Cal Poly – a lift charged to Mustang hitter Kylie Atherstone. It didn’t look like Atherstone actually held the ball at all. It just looked like Asami needed to call something on Cal Poly so LBSU’s crowd would stop yelling at him and he would look as though he was being fair. The only other Cal Poly error in game four was a service error charged to Katherine Hinkle after she served a ball into the net.
Asami is a national member of the Professional Association of Volleyball Officials, and his conduct was about as unprofessional as I have ever seen. Hall did the 49ers no justice, either.
LBSU head coach Brian Gimmillaro was so outraged at Asami that he received a yellow card after protesting what seemed to be the one millionth bad call on the 49ers. Gimmillaro was punished enough when his team lost. Apparently Asami and Hall knew his team was going to be punished, so in my opinion the yellow card was extremely unnecessary.
If anyone, it should have been Asami getting the yellow card for playing an immature and unprofessional game of favorites.
