VIDEO: Final points of the match
VIDEO: Long Beach State press conference
PALO ALTO, Calif. — The explosiveness and raw power was too much to contain. The leaping ability was too great.
No. 24 Long Beach State was eliminated by No. 2 Stanford University in straight sets (15-25, 21-25, 15-25) Saturday night at Maples Pavilion.
“We were never in the match. Stanford’s a much better team than us,” LBSU head coach Brian Gimmillaro said. “You just have to find ways to score at key points and try to steal a set, here and there. We just couldn’t get to that point … we didn’t play well.”
The Cardinal advanced to the Sweet 16, where they will play No. 15 Florida on Friday at Moby Arena in Fort Collins, Colo.
Stanford began the first set in dominating fashion and never looked back, charging first to a 12-4 lead and then pushing it to 19-10.
Cardinal senior Foluke Akinradewo had four intimidating kills and junior Janet Okogbaa had two strong, clean blocks to help increase the lead.
The ‘Niners showed some life late in the set as they capitalized off a big rally, which included diving digs by senior Nicole Vargas and senior Iris Murray.
Freshman Caitlin Ledoux then hammered a kill that deflected off a Stanford defender and was sent into the fourth row of the audience.
LBSU (26-6) seemed to get fired up but the Stanford (28-3) onslaught, led by Akinradewo and Okogbaa, was too much to contain.
It was a rough night for Ledoux, who tied with senior Quincy Verdin for the team high in kills with eight, but registered eight errors to finish with a .000 kill percentage.
Vargas, who was playing her final match along with Verdin and Murray, led the 49ers with 31 assists and eight digs. Murray posted a team-high 14 digs and freshman Lauren Minkel added 12.
“I’m just so proud that I came here and I was a part of it,” said an emotional Vargas, the daughter of retiring assistant coach Debbie Green. “I don’t regret anything that happened here. It’s done so much for me, it’s my home.”
Stanford was paced by senior Cynthia Barboza, who collected a double-double of 15 kills and 10 digs, along with a .467 hitting percentage and just one error. Sophomore Alix Klineman finished with 12 kills and 13 digs, while Akinradewo added 10 kills.
Errant kill attempts hurt The Beach all night and it was a reason they found themselves on the losing end of the set after they had only a .132 kill percentage and six errors. The ‘Niners finished the match with a .115 percentage.
The second and most competitive set by the 49ers ended with a controversial call.
The Cardinal had already left the court and made their way to the locker room thinking they had won the set, 25-21, but LBSU thought differently.
The ‘Niners argued that they only had three touches of the ball, but after several moments of disputing, it was ruled that LBSU had more than three hits.
The stunned look on the face of Vargas told it all.
“[The referees] called four hits. They said it went off our right side back or head after I dug it but …,” Vargas said, shaking her head no and cracking a grin.
The 49ers were ahead late in the set — gaining their first lead of the match, 16-15 — after Vargas and junior Brittney Herzog’s strong play.
The two teamed up to tie the game at 15 after Vargas blocked a kill attempt and then set her own deflected block to Herzog, who charged the net and hammered a kill. The very next possession, Herzog added another kill to force a Stanford timeout.
The Cardinal seemed to come out of the timeout refocused, regaining the lead and pushing it to 21-18.
“I thought Long Beach stepped it up, but I also think that we also kind of maybe backed off or relaxed for just a second and let them make some good plays,” Stanford head coach John Dunning said. “It takes that much to turn it a little bit, and we went back on the court very experienced, very determined.”
Akinradewo then had two critical blocks on a frustrated Naomi Washington to put the Cardinal ahead, 23-18.
The 49ers struggled to get a kill past the Stanford defenders in the set, as the normally effective Ledoux notched a lowly .091 kill percentage coupled with two errors.
“They’re a very good blocking team,” Gimmillaro said. “You have to do things that don’t run into the teeth of the block, and we didn’t do that.”
A usual stingy front line of blocking by The Beach, which was shown the prior night against Pepperdine, disappeared.
The team recorded only one block through the first two sets and had only three for the match.
“I didn’t like the execution on our side of the net, but the pressure that Stanford put on us influences the way you play,” Gimmillaro said.
In a 2-0 hole, the ‘Niners needed to take the third set to extend their season.
But the stellar play of Klineman down the stretch played a vital role in the final three Stanford points, including a block that set up a pass by sophomore Cassidy Lichtman to Okogbaa for the kill. Lichtman finished with 41 assists.
Klineman had a strong performance in the third set, recording five kills, four digs and a block.
The barrage by Stanford was best illustrated by a Klineman kill after she pounded a ball with so much force that it ricocheted off of freshman Cat Highmark and dropped past a diving Murray.
The set opened up with an exchange of points, including a kill by Washington, but Stanford pulled away to make the lead 13-5.
Trying to mount a comeback, LBSU called a play for Ledoux who smashed the ball to the back right corner of the Cardinal side. Unfortunately for the 49ers, the line judge ruled the ball out.
An infuriated Gimmillaro pleaded his case to the line judge but was given a yellow card for his vocal disagreement. Murray was also handed a yellow card later in the match.
“If we were doing what we needed to do, then maybe [the calls] wouldn’t have been such a factor,” Vargas said. “We should be able to move on and get right back into it. But there are just some calls you wish would’ve gone the other way. It didn’t happen for us.”
I think our men will look to exact some payback next semester.