Long Beach State had a whole week to prepare for the visiting UC San Diego Tritons, and boy did it show in a 30-22, 30-22, 30-21 win for the no. 8 49ers, who improved to 4-4 while dropping no. 12 San Diego to 3-6.  Few Triton swings went unchallenged, and the 49ers seemed to have charted every rotation to a tee, capitalizing on a great block and a huge advantage in the middle to claim the easy home victory.

Long Beach outblocked the Tritons 20 to 3—20 points off the block means that one out of every three 49er points came off a block.  Leading the charge was Antwain Aguillard, the player who led LBCC to a state title last year, who is already coming into his own in the Pyramid.  Aguillard assisted on 10 blocks, with one solo, and notched 14 points.  His body control was phenomenal, and he has the hangtime of a professional basketball player—three times he scored a block while actually coming down from the air.  Jim Baughman and Dan Alexander also helped the Niners set up shop.  The three of them combined for 34 points, while San Diego’s middles were held to 10, unable to compete against the physically dominant trio.

Pretty much everybody got off for the Niners, as the team hit .387 while holding San Diego to .045.  They led at every midway point, and none of the three sets were in close contention.  Interim coach Andy Read says that total performance is because the team didn’t just spend the whole week preparing for San Diego—they spent it working on themselves.  “You don’t get those stretches very often,” he said.  “We got a chance to work on us.  So tonight it was our block, our serve, our offense—this is who Long Beach State is.”

Dean Bittner, fresh off a fourth National Player of the Week award, hit .381 and scored a team-high 16 points with 8 block assists, an ace, and 11 kills.  “Every game moves us towards establishing out identity,” he said.  “But this was a big one.”

The 49ers now have another week to work on their game, since their next game is February 5th, at UC San Diego.