The Long Beach State women’s volleyball team nearly handed the match to the Pacific Tigers, but instead rallied to post a five-set victory at the Walter Pyramid on Saturday night.
LBSU outlasted Pacific, 25-19, 23-25, 25-14, 23-25, 15-11, to avoid dropping its first home match in 10 years to the Tigers.
The 49ers (13-5, 3-2 Big West Conference) overcame a quick 3-0 hole and eventually tied the final set at 7. Pacific then called timeout but Janisa Johnson’s kill gave the 49ers a lead they would not relinquish.
Freshman middle blocker Haleigh Hampton delivered an emphatic kill to put LBSU ahead 12-9 and, after what could have been a disastrous 49ers serving error, came through with another kill to restore the three-point advantage.
“You could see it in her eyes when she was going to hit,” junior libero Lauren Minkel said of Hampton.
After a Pacific point, Hampton recorded her 15th and final kill of the night, and Michelle Osunbor ended the contest after a Tigers overpass.
“If it wasn’t Haleigh at the end, I don’t know what we would have done,” LBSU head coach Brian Gimmillaro said.
Hampton also hit .394 with six digs and five blocks.
“[Gimmillaro] said … that was our season and something came over us,” Hampton said.
Caitlin Ledoux finished with a team-high 19 kills and Johnson added 12 for LBSU, which hit .249 in the match.
The 49ers also collected a whopping 100 digs, the eighth most in program history.
“I think it was, not really out of skill, but just aggressiveness and wanting to win,” said Minkel, who recorded a match-high 32 digs. Four other 49ers — Ashley Lee (11), Ledoux (14), Johnson (15) and Laura Schuck (17) — also finished in double figures.
Pacific (10-7, 3-3 Big West) was led by Svenja Engelhardt, who finished with a career-high 28 kills but needed 78 swings.
The ‘Niners let an opportunity to close out the Tigers in four sets slip away. After rallying to tie the set at 22, Lee delivered an errant serve into the net.
Then, tied at 23, Ledoux did the same and Pacific survived after Johnson’s attack stayed on the net and rolled back onto the 49ers’ side to force the deciding frame.
“Costly serving errors,” Gimmillaro said. “Hard to perform sometimes.”
Pacific hit just .023 with eight errors in set three as LBSU was able to roll to a 25-14 win. The Beach led by as many as 11 in the frame.
The 49ers’ defense covered well enough to win set two, but the offense committed seven hitting errors and three service errors in a 25-23 loss.
Tied at 22, Englehardt delivered her eighth kill of the set and LBSU was whistled for too many hits on the ensuing play. Junior outside hitter Samantha Misa then closed the set for the Tigers to tie the match at intermission.
The ‘Niners made 27 of their digs, many in athletic fashion, in the frame.
“Minkel, in the back row, was just doing a spectacular job,” Hampton said. “Our back row players were really picking it up for us.”
LBSU made the opening set tougher than it had to be. The team led the set, 10-8, but had already been called on the net four times. That helped Pacific stay in the contest and tie the frame on eight different occasions.
Leading 18-17, the 49ers closed the set on a 7-2 run capped by a Ledoux solo block to prevail, 25-19.
The Beach will host an underachieving UC Irvine team at 7 p.m. next Friday at the Walter Pyramid. The Anteaters (5-13, 1-4 Big West) earned one first-place vote and were picked to finish second behind the ‘Niners in the conference’s preseason coaches’ poll.
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