If we told you that the first-place Long Beach State women’s volleyball team led the seventh-place Northridge Matadors in hitting, digs and kills, had Naomi Washington return from the flu, you’d probably assume the Niners won. As much as LBSU fans wish that were so, the Niners fell in five sets, 25-23, 18-25, 17-25, 25-22, 18-16. They’re now knotted at the top of the leaderboard with UCSB, who defeated Davis. UCSB will visit Pacific and host the Matadors, while LBSU will host Riverside and UC Irvine to close out the season.
Long Beach State was led by Caitlin Ledoux once again, who had 21 kills and 19 digs in the loss; and the 49ers welcomed back the return of Naomi Washington with 18 kills, but were unable to take advantage of 13 Matador service errors and .228 hitting themselves, allowing Cal State Northridge to hit .209, led by Lynda Morales who hit .321 with 14 kills.
Both teams made their way through the first set by way of sideouts, as both teams were over 75-percent in a tight opener. Neither team had a lead larger than a point until the 49ers took a lead at 14-12, but the Matadors quickly tied the set and took a 17-16 lead. Long Beach State used a few attack errors to take a 23-21 lead, but made a few down the stretch as CSUN scored four straight to win the set 25-23 after a Janet Alvarado kill.
The second set was more in ordinary 49er fashion as Long Beach State hit .324 while holding the Matadors to a .188 tally. After taking an early lead, the 49ers pushed out to a three-point lead after a Lauren Minkel ace and a Jocelyn Neely kill. The lead would then swell to seven at 18-11, but after a Matador timeout CSUN cut the lead back to three at 18-15. With the score at 21-18, the 49ers went on a final run that finished out their first set win at 25-18 with a pair of sets from Washington along the way.
Long Beach State again made quick work of the Matadors in the third set. After taking a 6-5 lead, the 49ers stretched the lead to 11-9 following an Ashley Lee ace. Then, leading 16-14, Long Beach State controlled the rest of the set, winning 25-17.
In the fourth, the Matadors took an early 5-1 lead with a pair of blocks, but Long Beach State rallied to take a 6-5 lead with five straight points after a timeout. The set then progressed with neither team in control similar to set one, until a Tela Burnett block put the Matadors in front at 19-18, and Cal State Northridge never trailed again in a 25-22 win.
The team’s played another extremely close set in the finale, with Long Beach State taking what would be the largest lead at 2-0. Two straight Matador points tied the set, and the teams got to the turn with CSUN leading by one. Long Beach State rallied to hold off a first match point at 14-13, scoring two straight points on Caitlin Ledoux kills to take a 15-14 lead, but the Matadors held off Beach in the first of two set points. Another Ledoux kill put The Beach out in front a final time, but Morales closed out the match with a kill in Cal State Northridge’s second match point to get the win at 18-16.
Long Beach State closes out Big West play next week as the 49ers host UC Riverside and UC Irvine in the Walter Pyramid. The 49ers host the Highlanders at 7 p.m. on Friday, November 20 before taking on the Anteaters at 7 p.m. on Saturday.
From LBSU reports