After playing three tough matches last week, winning two and losing to No. 1 Nebraska, Long Beach had a much easier time against St. Mary’s and Idaho in the Long Beach State Invitational at The Walter Pyramid this past weekend.
The Long Beach State women’s volleyball’team’didn’t lose a game in either match, defeating Saint Mary’s College 30-25, 30-23, 31-29 and Idaho 30-23, 30-19, 30-15.
The match against St. Mary’s was the second time the two California schools had met in less than week, with LBSU winning in five games last week in Nebraska.
Despite the sweep, The Beach (7-2) struggled throughout most of the match and relied upon its depth, height and balanced attacks to overcome deficits in every game.
The Gaels, which have never beaten LBSU, came out inspired and midway through the first game The Beach trailed by seven points (16-9). LBSU head coach Brian Gimmillaro called a timeout and shuffled his lineup, inserting Dyanne Lawlor and Quincy Verdin in the game.
The pair provided an immediate spark that propelled The Beach to score the next eight points and cruise to a 30-25 win.
Lawlor had 11 assists and three digs in the game, while the frontcourt was led by Verdin, who had seven kills in game one. Iris Murray contributed with five digs.
The second game was more of the same as The Beach again found itself trailing and needing a rally before eventually pulling away and winning the game. LBSU was led by Lawlor again, who had 14 assists, while Robin Miramontes led the frontcourt with six kills.
In the third game, LBSU had to overcome being down by five points twice and fight off four game point chances by the Gaels. LBSU trailed the entire game and was down 26-29 before it scored the next five points to secure the three-game sweep.
Lawlor had a match-high 36 assists combined with five digs and four blocks. Verdin led LBSU with 14 kills and two digs. Miramontes had 12 kills and seven digs while Alexis Crimes and Michaela Hasalikova had 11 and nine kills, respectively. Iris Murray led both teams with 11 digs and two aces.
After beating St. Mary’s, Long Beach State did not exactly lay out the welcome mats for Idaho, which is a former member of the Big West Conference.
Game one was the closest of the three. With junior Iris Murray serving, LBSU jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead. Idaho then rallied to tie the score at seven. But Crimes and senior Robin Miramontes proved to be too much for Idaho, with each posting five kills in the opening game.
The Beach would go on to have few problems finishing off the Vandals in games two and three.
Crimes led the LBSU attack hitting 15 kills with a .417 attack percentage. Sophomore Verdin had 10 kills and Miramontes added nine kills.
After being on the bench for most of the match Thursday, Nicole Vargas passed for 38 assists to lead The Beach. Murray led the team in digs with 16.
Gimmillaro was happy with the victory but still sees room for improvement.
“I’m happy we won but I expect to win,” Gimmillaro said. “We did certain things well tonight, but we didn’t do everything well at the same time. But I felt we were in control of the match the whole time.”
The Beach remains perfect against Idaho. LBSU holds an all-time unblemished record of 16-0 against the Vandals.
The Beach will host UNLV at The Walter Pyramid Sept. 15.