Long Beach State women’s volleyball was swept by the No. 18 ranked UCLA in three sets on Thursday, Sept. 2, at the Walter Pyramid—CSULB’s 10th loss in a row to the Bruins in 12 years.
CSULB was able to keep pace with the Bruins early on in each set, as reigning Big West Offensive player of the week Kashauna Williams led all scorers with 16 kills and a .371 attack percentage.
However, It wasn’t enough as UCLA was able to keep momentum in their favor throughout the rest of the match, winning its sets 25-16, 25-13, and 25-21, while taking the first win of the Long Beach State Tournament.
“You can’t go into a match and miss as many serves as we did, and it’s basic A’s, B’s and C’s,” CSULB head coach Joy McKienzie-Fuerbringer said after her team committed 13 serve errors throughout the night. “At that level, where UCLA is right now, we’ve got to bring our serve and pass game and we didn’t do that tonight.”
With an all-time 64-19 losing record against UCLA, CSULB has not won a game against the Bruins since Sept. 19, 2009. But McKienzie-Fuerbringer said that fact did not add any extra pressure going into the game.
“Each year, it’s a different team, it’s just about dealing with that team,” McKienzie-Fuerbringer said. “So there’s not a lot of pressure there, except we know we’re going up against a top-25 team.”
Still, CSULB showed determination, mounting a small comeback while down in the third set. But despite scoring five straight points to make it 24-21, UCLA would go on to win after the next serve.
“That’s who we are, and I’d like to see more of that consistently,” McKienzie-Fuerbringer said. “We were hoping it would keep coming out, you know, but it was in the third set and it was too late.”
Long Beach State will play its next game against Georgia Tech University, at 7 p.m. Friday. Sept. 3, at the Walter Pyramid.