Long Beach State could not carry the momentum from Friday night’s sweep against Pacific into Saturday’s showdown with No. 1 Stanford.
The 49ers were overmatched in a 30-28, 30-22, 30-21, sweep at the hands of the Cardinal at the Walter Pyramid. Stanford hit a blistering .420 as a team and limited The Beach to a .183 attack.
LBSU head coach Andy Read said his team had trouble getting kills against Stanford’s defense.
“We were 1-on-1 a lot tonight and didn’t kill the ball,” Read said.
Senior Dean Bittner led the LBSU attack with 15 kills. He also captained the defense, tying junior Kirk Francis for team-high honors with six digs. Senior Conor Eaton dished out 37 assists in the match.
Both teams came out energetic in the first set in a hard-fought battle. With six lead changes and 12 ties, neither team could establish dominance over the other.
The Beach (12-11, 8-8 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) took the lead, 27-26, off a Bittner and Alexander block, which forced Stanford to call a timeout. Stanford came out strong after the pause in action, continuing to attack and finishing off the set, 30-28, after scoring four of the last five points.
After the first set, the Cardinal (15-4, 12-4 MPSF) took control of the match and never gave it back. Read said the first set was pivotal to the outcome of the match.
“It was all about game one,” Read said. “If we win game one, we feel really good about ourselves … I think they dodged the one and ran the rest of the table.”
In the second set, Stanford maintained its energy, while the 49ers began to fall behind. Throughout the set, the Cardinal had control and were never threatened by The Beach’s attack and finished the set with ease.
“That’s the difference, they are more consistent than we are,” Read said of Stanford’s play.
Read substituted junior Josh Riley in to spark up their offense in the second set.
“I needed someone to kill the ball and it was going to be him or [Jim Baughman],” Read said. “Josh has been good at what he does and cracks the ball.”
The third set was not much different than the second. Although LBSU improved its attacking to a match-best .300 clip in the frame, it was topped by Stanford’s .536 hitting percentage.
Long Beach plays five of its six remaining matches at the Pyramid, with all six contests being against conference opponents. The Beach returns to action April 1 and 2 with a pair of games against BYU at the Walter Pyramid. Both matches are scheduled for a 7 p.m. start.
Read said, “You’re 8-8 [in the MPSF] and in the middle of the pack. There are no easy matches left and we need to win on the home court.”