UI Pushes 49ers To Four Games 4th-Ranked Long Beach State Remains Only Undefeated Team
Idaho tried to put a roadblock in Long Beach State University’s undefeated volleyball season.
The No. 4-ranked 49ers answered by putting up dozens of booming blocks, along with an assortment of kills, digs and dinks, defeating the Vandals 15-9, 15-13, 11-15, 15-8 before a standing-room-only house of 1,804 at Memorial Gym Thursday night.
The 49ers, first-time visitors to one of the Big West Conference’s newcomers, improved to 26-0, 13-0 in the Western Division. Idaho, first in the Eastern Division, slipped to 10-3, 21-5. Four of the losses have been against ranked teams.
The 49ers remained the only undefeated Division I-A team in the nation, but at least the Vandals forced them to take a detour down a side street before the second largest volleyball crowd in Idaho history.
The Vandals join a short list of seven schools that were not swept in three by the 49ers. And they are being forced to play without senior middle blocker Louisa Kawulok the rest of the season who suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury in practice Tuesday.
Kawulok led the team in blocks (1.30 per game) and was second in hitter (.330 percent) this year behind Jessica Moore.
“It hurt us a lot in the blocking,” Vandal coach Tom Hilbert said. “It also hurt us severely in ball control.”
The 49ers totaled 18 team blocks to UI’s nine. LBSU’s deadliest blockers were 6-foot-1 sophomore Benishe Dillard, who finished 11, and 5-11 sophomore Jessica Alvarada, who added seven.
After the Vandals took the third game, mostly due to the precise setting of Lynne Hyland and kills landed by Beth Craig, the 49ers made easy work in the fourth game, winning in less than 15 minutes.
The Vandals took an 8-7 lead in the final game, but LBSU scored eight straight points off one server to close out the match. Dillard and Alvarada teamed for three blocked shots and the other five points were scored off kills.
“We played pretty solid until the fourth game,” said Hyland, who finished with 47 assists. “I wish we would have been able to dig more balls though.”
Even though LBSU was without its starting setter Misty May, out with a leg injury, there were few doubts in the first game as Long Beach State jumped in front 7-0 at the start of the second rotation and never trailed. May is averaging 78 assists per match and carries a .330 hitting percentage.
“All season we’ve had good execution and great transition,” LBSU coach Brian Gimmillaro said. “But if you don’t have your best player (May), you can’t execute as well.”
“The Vandals had a chance to tie the match at 1-1 but let a 13-10 lead slip away in the second game. LBSU tied the game on a Jenn Snyder kill and finished the game on an Idaho error, followed by another Snyder kill. Synder led her team with 17 kills (.186 hitting).
UI’s Craig (.273 hitting) and Jeri Hymas (.102 hitting) also had 17 kills each. Moore had 10 kills.
Ignited by the 18 kills of sophomore Kim Exner, Eastern Washington scored 30 of the last 35 points and swept visiting Montana State 15-11, 15-11, 15-2 in a key Big Sky Conference match.
The win helped Eastern (13-11, 6-7) solidify its hold on one of the top six spots in the league standings. Five teams, including MSU (16-9, 7-7) entered the night within two games of each other in the race for the six spots in the Big Sky tournament, which starts Nov. 21.
Lacey Coover added 12 kills and nine digs for the Eagles, who were swept by the Bobcats earlier this season in Bozeman, Mont. Lynn Robison chipped in 14 digs and seven kills for the Eagles.
Jenni Bosselli had 13 kills and JoEne Heimbigner added 27 assists as Community Colleges of Spokane blitzed visiting North Idaho College 16-14, 15-9, 15-13.
, DataTimes MEMO: Cut in the Spokane edition