Head coach Alan Knipe and the Long Beach State men’s volleyball team made the proper adjustments against Alberta on Saturday night.
After being swept by Canada’s defending national champions the previous night, the 49ers pulled out a four-set victory (30-28, 30-24, 25-30, 30-27) over the Golden Bears in an exhibition at the Walter Pyramid.
“We made a lot of errors last night and at crucial times we weren’t steady, but I thought tonight we passed the ball a lot better,” Knipe said. “We served better. Even though we missed some serves, we actually created some havoc.
“I thought the guys did a nice job of coming back and being focused and realizing [the changes needed to be made were] on our side of the net.”
For a second consecutive night, junior All-American Dean Bittner led all hitters with 25 kills on .340 hitting for the ‘Niners. This time around he had some help, as Tommy Pestolesi (18 kills), fellow All-American Dan Alexander (10 kills) and Kyle Friend (10 kills) all finished in double figures. Friend, who hit .412, also added eight digs.
Senior libero Dustin Watten led the defense with a match-high 12 digs, while sophomore setter Mike Klipsch collected 52 assists to go with nine digs.
Joel Schmuland led the way for Alberta with 14 kills and Jason DeRocco added 12 on .500 hitting. Mike DeRocco contributed 44 assists and eights digs, which were both team highs.
After quickly squandering leads in the first meeting, LBSU maintained the momentum tonight.
Trailing 19-17 in the fourth set, LBSU went on a 7-3 run to seize control and force an Alberta timeout before closing out the match.
“I think it was a confidence and also a competitiveness tonight,” Knipe said. “We wanted to make sure that we were going to close it out and that was nice to see. I wouldn’t say there was a killer instinct, but there was definitely a hunger to finish the set.”
The Golden Bears’ lone victory was in set three, limiting the 49ers to just a .188 hitting percentage, their lowest of the night.
LBSU settled into a rhythm en route to a 30-24 win in set two.
Bittner tallied eight of his kills in the set as the 49ers led by as many as seven points. Meanwhile, Alberta managed just an .071 attack percentage in the second set.
The ‘Niners won the opening set, 30-28, to claim their first victory in four sets against Alberta including last night’s affair.
Pestolesi collected 10 of his kills and hit an impressive .533 in the set.
“I was just going in there being aggressive like [the coaches] teach us,” Pestolesi said. “I was going up there taking good swings and it works most of the time, as it worked out in [set] one pretty well.”
LBSU will open the regular season at the UC Santa Barbara tournament Friday and Saturday.