With only four matches left to play before the NCAA Tournament, the No. 24-ranked Long Beach State women’s volleyball team can only continue winning as the NCAA committee will decide whether it will host a first-round match.
The Beach (19-6, 13-2 Big West), which punched its ticket to a 25th consecutive appearance to the 64-team tournament, will wrap up conference play at the Walter Pyramid on Saturday at 7 p.m. against UC Irvine (10-16, 4-10 Big West).
LBSU will then host three non-conference contests to close out the regular season against Loyola Marymount, Central Michigan and New Mexico. Even if LBSU was to finish the season with only wins, its Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) ranking will presumably not be high enough to host an NCAA Tournament match.
The RPI takes into account a team’s win-loss record and strength of schedule, including that of its opponents throughout the season.
LBSU, which is ranked No. 41 in the most recent RPI poll, will face four teams — UCI (No. 152), LMU (No. 125), Central Michigan (No. 99) and New Mexico (No. 113) — with significantly lower RPI rankings.
Despite the weakness of LBSU’s remaining schedule, 49ers head coach Brian Gimmillaro said the team has to focus only on improving as the 64-team tournament nears.
“You are not going anywhere in the playoffs unless you improve,” he said.
Gimmillaro added: “The remaining games become very important. You are either good or you are not good. You do not know what the team you might face in two weeks is doing. You just have to improve.”
Senior outside hitter Caitlin Ledoux, who has overcome recent struggles since returning from a shin injury Oct. 8, received Big West Player of the Week honors after pacing the Long Beach attack all weekend.
Prior to last weekend, Ledoux had only registered a hitting percentage above .268 in one of her last eight matches, however, she tallied 12 kills and 11 digs on .346 hitting in the conference title-clinching victory at the University of the Pacific. The co-captain followed that up with another dominant performance — 20 kills on a .302 clip and a season-high 16 digs at Davis on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the 49ers’ biggest obstacle on Saturday will be to contain Irvine’s junior libero Kristin Winkler, who has anchored the Anteaters backcourt and is second in the Big West with 516 digs. The Beach will also look to stop sophomore outside hitter Aly Squires, who leads the squad with 334 kills (seventh in the Big West) on .154 hitting.
The Anteaters, who are coming off a pair of four-set losses to UC Riverside and Cal State Northridge, will be looking to snap the 49ers’ 11-match winning streak — the longest the program has had since 2007 with 13.
The Beach, however, had little trouble defeating Irvine at the Bren Events Center in straight sets — 25-10. 25-11, 25-15 — on Oct. 4.
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