The No. 9 Long Beach State men’s volleyball team suffered a lopsided loss to No.2-ranked Cal State Northridge, Friday night at the Walter Pyramid.
In their second Mountain Pacific Sports Federation contest, the 49ers (2-3, 1-1 MPSF), coming off a 3-2 win against rival UCSB, lost in three sets, 30-26, 30-23, 30-27. It is the first time this year the 49ers failed to win at least one set in a match.
Meanwhile, the Matadors (5-0, 2-0 MPSF) remain unbeaten on the season as they attempt to live up to their No.2 ranking.
Down two sets, LBSU head coach Andy Read looked for a spark as he sat starting libero Kirk Francis and inserted Kory Matsukado before the start of the third set.
“We needed someone to make a play for us back there, that’s all. Kirk passed the ball well but you have to do more than that. We missed some digs and that’s why we brought in Kory,” Read said.
Looking to claim a set of their own, the ‘Niners took four of the first six points in the third set.
However, the combined play of Matador seniors Theo Edwards and Kevin Mcniff was no match for the 49ers. The LBSU lead quickly disappeared as CSUN closed out the match with the last three points.
The Northridge duo of Edwards and Mcniff combined for 31 of the 53 kills the Matadors registered.
“We let their hitter hit their shots all night and we didn’t dig or block it,” LBSU head coach Andy Read said. But we were down 0-2 and we just couldn’t win that last set when we figured it all out”
Senior Conor Eaton led LBSU with 44 assists as All-American Dean Bittner led the team with 19 kills.
The second set brought fireworks, both on the bench and on the court. With the 49ers trailing by five, Read called for a timeout to regroup his team. That is when senior middle blocker Dan Alexander let his team have it.
“[I told them] that we need to play harder,” said Alexander. “I was just trying to pump them up and to play Long Beach State volleyball and we just weren’t doing that tonight.”
Alexander’s words didn’t resonate well in the minds of his teammates, however, as the Matadors served up an ace directly after the timeout. Before the 49ers could rally, the Matadors doubled up and took a two-set lead.
CSUN made a statement early on in the match taking a 4-1 lead in set one, yet the 49ers would battle and stayed close throughout the frame. The set was highlighted by four monstrous kills by junior Antwain Aguillard, who had eight in the match on .889 hitting.
However, Aguillard’s impressive display was not enough as the Matadors jumped out to a first-set win.
The 49ers will look to rebound from the one-sided loss when they travel to face No. 1 USC on Jan. 20.