The 49ers looked better in just about every way in the second of two matches against BYU…but they still fell in four sets, 26-30, 30-27, 22-30, 23-30.  “Well, we played volleyball tonight,” said head coach Andy Read. “I know we’re supposed to play volleyball every night, but, you know.” 

Read’s squad reduced Thursday’s 18 service errors to 14, and got nine aces to Thursday’s zero.  They improved their hitting from .101 to .273, and they had five players notch double digit points (team-leading Kyle Friend, Tommy Pestolesi, Dean Bittner, Dan Alexander, and Antwain Aguillard).  They still struggled mightily to find their way around BYU’s block, and still couldn’t solve the duo of Robb Stowell and Andrew Steward; Stowell had 26 kills on .657 hitting, and Steward had seven block assists to go with 21 kills.

The first set was a dead heat until the 24th point, with 15 tied scores and four lead changes.  But a 6-2 run to close it gave the Cougars the start they wanted, and Long Beach State’s second-set efforts (.351 hitting) fell to naught as they were shut down to close out the game.  And despite the improved commitment and effort, this team needs wins.  They currently sit in eight place at 8-10 in the MPSF, with four matches remaining.  Read says they need to win three of four to be relatively assured of a top-8 finish (and thus an appearance in the conference tournament), and they travel to face UC Irvine (6-11 in conference), then come home to play UCLA (9-8), USC (9-8) and Pepperdine (12-5).