The No. 18 Long Beach State women’s volleyball team will embark on its last road trip of the season, looking to clinch the Big West Title with one more win.
The 49ers (22-4, 12-0 Big West Conference) travel to play UC Davis (15-11, 10-3 Big West) on Thursday and UC Riverside (2-23, 0-13 Big West) on Saturday.
A win against UCD would give The Beach at least a share of the Big West title and the automatic qualifier into the NCAA Tournament.
The road test won’t be so easy, however, as the Aggies stand in second place in the Big West.
“They are a very good team now,” head coach Brian Gimmillaro said. “Davis, I think, might be the best serving team in the country, and they’re certainly one of the most improved teams in the country.”
The 49ers go into the weekend with their highest ranking of the season at No. 18 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Poll and No. 23 in the NCAA RPI. But the Aggies are on a five-game winning streak, and LBSU was their last loss.
“They’re well aware of what they can spoil,” Gimmillaro said. “They will have a big crowd, a good plan, they’re well coached and they know what they want to do. Everybody knows their role and responsibility, and they’re good. This is a very good team.”
UCD’s only home loss of the season came in its conference opener against to then No. 25 Hawaii.
“We get to play them at their place, so they’re excited to play and they want to win,” freshman middle blocker Ashley Murray said. “So it should be a pretty tough game.”
Murray won her third Big West Conference Freshman Player of the Week award after her performances against UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly last weekend. It was the third time she was honored in the last six weeks.
Junior Kaylin Squyres is the only player on the team who has played and started in every game. She leads the Aggies with 415 kills and 36 service aces. Senior Katie Quinn leads the team with 120 total blocks.
UCR hasn’t won a conference game yet this season, but Gimmillaro isn’t about to start taking them lightly.
“Riverside has had a poor season,” Gimmillaro said. “However, over the past three years, they’ve beaten the conference champs each of the past three years at their home.”
The team will head to UCD on Wednesday after what’s expected to be a shorter practice period to give the team some extra time to rest and heal up.
“I think that we haven’t really had a break in a while over season, so having less practice is probably going to actually benefit us,” Murray said. “A lot of people are going to be able to recuperate and be prepared for this weekend.”
Murray said the team is going into this weekend focused.
“Take care of business, do our part, work hard and just finish it off,” Murray said. “We’re going to do everything we can to make sure that we do what we came to do. We’re so close, so everyone is super excited.”
The 49ers play UCD on Thursday in the Pavilion and UCR on Saturday in the SRC Arena on Saturday. Both matches are set for 7 p.m.