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It took a complete team effort for Long Beach State women’s volleyball to extend its winning streak on Tuesday night at Walter Pyramid.
The Beach (16-9, 10-5) used a balanced attack and cohesive defense to get out in front and beat UC San Diego 25-20, 25-20, 20-25, 25-14. It is LBSU’s fourth consecutive win, and puts the Beach tied atop the Big West Conference standings alongside 10-win teams UCSD, Cal Poly, Hawai’i and UC Davis.
“I’m really proud of our team because we’ve been saying ‘All 24’ and having our deep roster and our big squad helps a ton,” LBSU coach Natalie Reagan said. “We talk about being gritty and resilient and it felt like this win was that.”
LSBU freshman Madi Maxwell (11 kills, 8 digs, 3 service aces), senior Abby Karich (10 kills, 11 digs) and senior Natalie Glenn (10 kills) paced the offense led by setters Maura Hayes and Zayna Meyer. They combined for 41 assists and only two errors.
Meyer had missed the last three matches due to injury, but the junior Hayes said the adjusted rotations haven’t spoiled her rhythm.
“I’m not on the court with (Meyer) but I really feel her energy and to be able to keep that on the court as I go back in is just really fun,” Hayes said. “Sometimes that could be hard. But I think in our situation, even when (Madi) was setting too, all three of us are just so steady and so just confident that I think there’s not a big difference in energy level or anything.”
The first set saw 10 tied scores until Kameron Bacon’s kill and Maxwell’s ace put LBSU up 15-13 at the media timeout. Grace O’Reilly came out of the break with consecutive cross-court kills to put the Beach up 17-14 and force an UCSD timeout. Bacon had six kills and O’Reilly had nine kills.
The Beach led 19-18 when they took a key timeout. Maxwell came out and showed her full skill set down the stretch with a kill on a roll shot, a kill down the line and a kill through the UCSD block. A Bacon block clinched the set 25-20.
“She has done an incredible job as a true freshman in a new position,” Reagan said of Maxwell. “She’s been playing this position for eight months now. To soak in all of the training and be able to execute it in these big moments, we’re really proud.”
“I just spent a lot of the time building some type of confidence in myself,” Maxwell said.
The second set saw both teams squander three-point leads early with self inflicted errors. It was tied 17-17 when Meyer fed Bacon with a nice set for a loud kill. That sparked a 5-1 run for the Beach that included a pair of long rallies won by the home team. During the second rally, LBSU turned back four UCSD attacks before a Triton error gave the Beach the point. Glenn ended the set 25-20 with a strong kill.
UCSD looked its best to start the third set when the Tritons took a 19-8 lead thanks to some fantastic play from setter Audrey Hollis. She had 14 assists in the set and finished with 37 assists. Tritons outside hitter Kylie Pries had a match-high 14 kills.
However, the Beach didn’t go quietly and battled back to force a late UCSD timeout. The Tritons would take the set 25-20, but LBSU had played well enough at the end of the set to avoid giving the visitors all of the momentum.
The fourth set was also close early, but Karich came up big with consecutive kills to give LBSU a 12-9 lead and the home side never trailed again. The Beach hit 71 percent as a team in the decisive fourth set.
“I think our middles did a really awesome job of being up and holding (the UCSD) middle blocker,” Karich said. “We work on creating all the time. We train in our gym to look for hands, elbows and even use our left hand to get super creative when we aren’t in that great situation… I saw a couple opportunities to go there tonight.”
LBSU visits Hawai’i this weekend.
