Long Beach State lose
to University of California Irvine by 1 to 3
The Bren Events Center was witness to an exciting match between two competitive teams on Wednesday. The match that took place between Long Beach State men’s volleyball team and UC Irvine saw the latter emerge as victor. The number eight ranking Irvine team
was able to defeat the number three ranked Long Beach State in a match that went on till four sets. At the end of the game, the score board showed final set scores of 25-20, 25-23, 23-25, 25-23.
With the recent loss, the 49ers overall defeats have now reached a figure of five whereas they have been able to make six wins. If the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation statistics are considered, then the wins that Long Beach State have had are five at
the expense of three defeats. In contrast to this, UC Irvine have won seven matches in this season until this point whereas they have registered eight losses. If UC Irvine’s MPSF statistics are taken into consideration, then the wins equal four and the defeats
sum up to five.
Long Beach State’s coach, Andy Read, has been eccentric in choosing the players that start the match. The team has shown variability in its opening players in the previous matches that Long Beach has played. For instance, in the match on Wednesday, Connor
Olbright, a freshman on his team was given a chance to open instead of the usual veteran senior setter, Mike Klipsch. It proved to be a valuable choice as Olbright was able to contribute a total of 20 assists before Klipsch could take over in the third set
of the match.
Read explains the starting strategy for his team in the following words: “If guys believe that they should start, then when they get the start they need to be good that night, the next night, and the next night.”
Jim Baughman, the junior opposite for the 49ers posted 13 kills but they came at a heavy cost. He also made 12 errors and his hitting percentage was an unfortunate .024.
LBSU was not able to pull itself together in the first two sets of the match. The 49ers did not have a lead in the first set of the game. When LBSU got to the second set, only then were they able to scrap a lead. Even then the 49ers could not step up their
play and lost the initial two sets by 25-20 and 25-23 respectively to the Anteaters.
As the pressure mounted on LBSU, they managed to scrap a win in the third set. But they could not keep up the momentum and lost a long fourth and final set to UCI.
Next in line for Long Beach is a match against the Tritons that is scheduled to be played on Friday.
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