October 6, 2007

LBSU grabs share of BWC lead with win
Women's volleyball: The 49ers sweep Matadors at home.
By Frank Burlison, Staff writer

LONG BEACH - The Long Beach State volleyball team hasn't played a lot better this season than it did during the first game of a Big West Conference match against its Cal State Northridge counterpart Saturday night.

The 49ers weren't quite as overpowering over the next two games in the Walter Pyramid, but they still left the building with a 30-12, 30-22 and 31-29 sweep and a share of the conference lead.

Senior middle blocker Alexis Crimes turned in another solid performance with 15 kills, eight digs and 3.5 blocks, to help coach Brian Gimmillaro's team improve to 4-1 in the Big West and 10-5 overall in front of a gathering of 1,479 with its eighth victory over its past nine matches.

The 49ers, Cal Poly (which handed Long Beach its only conference loss) and UC Irvine (which has lost only to the 49ers) are tied for the conference lead.

Matadors setter Kayla Wright scored on a dump to cut her team's deficit to 14-9 in Game 1.

But Long Beach went on a 14-0 run, with libero Talaya Whitfield serving on 13 of those points, and sophomore Naomi Washington scoring four points in the spurt,

"For a while there, we played about as well as we have all season," Gimmillaro said. "But I felt we were growing into that kind of performance during the course of our five practices last week. I thought we were ready for tonight's match."

The Matadors (3-3 and 6-12) were coming off a five-game victory over the Cal State Fullerton on Tuesday.

But the combination of not playing well and facing a much tougher opponent left the team from the San Fernando Valley wobbly out of the chute, as the Matadors had more attack errors (12) than kills (eight) in Game 1 while racking up a minus-.103 attack percentage.

The visitors seemed to settle down and become more assertive and efficient in Game 2, pulling into a 13-9 advantage after a Cynthia Buggs service error.

The 49ers reeled off six consecutive points but Northridge was still in front (21-19) after Long Beach was called for a double contact.

But Long Beach had a 9-0 streak (with Buggs serving on eight of the points) to gain control.

The 49ers trailed by as many as three points (11-8 and 12-9) in Game 3 before seemingly having things well in hand after Crimes scored to push them up, 28-23.

But the visitors scored five of the next six points, forcing Gimmillaro to call a timeout after a service ace by Val Kepler cut his team's lead to 29-28.

Freshman Brittney Williams scored over a block attempt to tie the score before Nicole Vargas scored on a dump and Michaela Hasalikova and Ashley Lee combined for a block of Williams to wrap up the game and match.

Junior Quincy Verdin (forced to change into jersey No. 16 instead of her usual 21 midway through the match after her nose was bloodied from an opponents' follow-through after Verdin blocked her shot) added 11 kills for the 49ers, who travel north for matches at Pacific and UC Davis next weekend.

49ers 3, CS Northridge 0

Friday: at Pacific,

7 p.m.