The Beach women’s volleyball swept the UC Riverside Highlanders 3-0 in dominating fashion at The Walter Pyramid on a Saturday night in which Outober and the LGBTQ+ community were being celebrated.
Long Beach State’s defense played a massive part in their success as they out-blocked the Highlanders 11-2. Riverside did not get a team block until the third set.
“We didn’t block as well last week because we were focusing on a different part of blocking to try to get better at that part,” said Beach head coach Tyler Hildebrand. “We got to be better at what we’re actually pretty good at, which isn’t system blocking, and they were able to focus on that and make that change.”
The Beach has won its last four home games, and the rowdy energy in the ‘Mid plays a huge factor in that, and Saturday night was no different.
“It gives me more confidence to just keep going and playing with joy is also a big thing that I kind of focus on,” said junior outside hitter Natalie Glenn.
Glenn continued her hot streak leading the team with 10 kills while putting up a .556 kill percentage.
The Beach has won five out of their last six games and is now tied with Hawaii for the lead in the Big West with a conference record of 6-2.
“I try to attribute our success all year to the fact that we’ve been working on things for a long time now. 18 months now and […] every week, something starting to click a little bit more and that’s how it goes,” Hildebrand said.
Redshirt sophomore setter Zayna Meyer was a huge factor again for The Beach as she orchestrated the offense all night and filled up the box score with 28 assists, six kills, four digs and three blocks. She was distributing the ball all over the court, setting up five hitters to earn five or more kills and even added six kills herself.
“Tonight, our goal was to come out and not just get by not just get away and it was to continue to prove ourselves and define our team,” said junior outside hitter Abby Karich.
This is exactly what The Beach did as its smallest margin of victory in a set was eight points and its largest was 11.
“The fact that we have a target on our back, we proved ourselves and now everyone wants to beat us,” Karich said. “So we know teams are gonna come out and play hard against us. And we’re ready for that. And we love that challenge.”
A challenge is exactly what The Beach will face as they hit the road on Thursday evening at 7 p.m. against conference foe UC Irvine before heading back home next week.