11:30am | As anxious as Long Beach State is about playing a team that has had their number for the last couple of years, the 20th-ranked University of San Diego women’s volleyball team (27-4) is not exactly happy about their first round date with the 49ers Friday night.
The USDs have a star in Sandra Lozic, who recorded a match-best 11 kills in a puzzling 3-0 West Coast Conference (WCC) decision to No. 18 Pepperdine University on November 19 at the Jenny Craig Pavilion. Lozic recorded her match-high 11 kills on 26 swings to hit for a .269 clip. Chloe Ferrari and Alaysia Brown each recorded eight kills. Neither team connected very well on offense USD hit .136, while Pepperdine hit .188.
On the other side of the twine, Long Beach State has a 23-6 mark and 15 consecutive wins. Meanwhile, UCLA has a 24-6 overall record and the MEAC champion Maryland Eastern Shore enters the week with an overall record of 24-6. USD’s women’s soccer team beat UCLA in the second round then lost in swampy conditions to LBSU in the third round at Drake Stadium on the UCLA campus two weeks ago.
Long Beach State finished that nifty 15-match winning streak with a winning Thanksgiving week, three wins in four nights. Against USD, LBSU leads the all-time series at 10-7, but the Toreros have won the last six meetings. The Beach has four powerful hitters, beginning with Haleigh Hampton, who has 323 kills (2.94 kps) and is hitting at a .342 clip. Add in freshmen tower of power Alma Cerna, national and BWC POW Janisa Johnson, and nicer swings of late by Bre Mackie and Delainey Aigner-Swesey. The QB and setter Erin Juley directs the LBSU offense to a .255 team attack percentage, and the Long Beach defense features the best libero at the Beach in some time, Lauren Minkel; she has a team-best 417 digs.
The second part of the tourney pits national seed UCLA who enters the tournament with an overall record of 24-6 after dropping its regular-season finale to No. 1 USC. And Maryland Eastern Shore who enters the NCAA Tournament as the MEAC champions and an overall mark 24-6.
For San Diego, it is its 15th appearance in the NCAAs, advanced to the Sweet 16 in both the 2004 and 2006 seasons. Interestingly enough, USD interim head coach Brent Hilliard (an All American at LBSU) has a post-season record of 2-1, as he served in the same capacity in 2006 when USD defeated Jacksonville, 3-0, and Duke, 3-2, in the first two rounds to advance the Toreros into the Sweet 16, before falling to eventual national champion Nebraska.
The best of the USD players all took home all WCC honors: middle hitters Chloe Ferrari and Katie Hoekman, junior libero Kandiss Anderson and junior outside hitter Amber Tatsch.
You can see all of this weekends matches using the live free video stream available at www.uclabruins.com or be a real fan and fight the 405 to buy an All-Session Packages for all three matches online, or on the day of the match at the John Wooden Center. Single-Session tickets are only available at the JWC Ticket Office. Ticket windows open 60 minutes prior to the first match. All tickets are general admission and first-come, first-serve. All-Session Packages – $18 adults/$10 students and youths
Single-session tickets are $10 adults/$6 students and youths.