The No. 11-ranked Long Beach State men’s volleyball team ended a three-game losing streak by dominating Cal Baptist in straight sets, 25-16, 25-18, 25-10, at the Walter Pyramid Wednesday night.
The ‘Niners (3-4) held Cal-Baptist (1-4) to a meager .095 hitting percentage — the lowest of any LBSU opponent this season.
Senior opposite Jim Baughman led the LBSU attack with 12 kills, 2 service aces, and an amazing .647 hitting percentage. Baughman recorded 7 of his kills in the third set alone.
“It was nice to get the feeling of winning back,” said Baughman.
All three of LBSU’s wins have come at the expense of out of conference opponents. LBSU is yet to beat a member of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
“We need to be consistent,” interim head coach Andy Read said. “We can do everything well, but the question is can we do it well long enough?”
LBSU was able to improve their attack after each set posting .333, .400, and .545 hitting percentages, respectively.
The match started with the LBSU defense dominating the Lancers’ attack. Cal Baptist struggled mightily in the first set, hitting just .065 with eight errors. Three Lancers had negative hitting percentages in the first set.
During the second set it was more of the same from LBSU. An early 7-point run gave the ‘Niners an advantage that Cal Baptist was unable to recover from.
The Lancers were able to come up with a 2-point run late in the second set capped off by an ace by freshman setter Kevin Kustura, but it was too little too late.
LBSU senior middle blocker Ryan Meehan closed the door on the Lancers with yet another ‘Niners attack.
Cal Baptist had seemingly lost the will to fight by the third set. Four errors capped by a block by Baughman and sophomore middle blocker Jeff Ornee seemed to take all the fight out of the Lancers.
The Lancers were only able to put up 10 points by the end of the third set against a LBSU team that finally put it all together.
“We do some things well sometimes and other things well other times,” said Read. “That doesn’t happen to good teams.”
Wednesday night might be just what the ‘Niners needed to get themselves back on track.
Before heading back into MPSF play, LBSU will take on an unranked Princeton team January 31 at the Walter Pyramid.
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