The third time was not the charm for the Long Beach State men’s volleyball team Friday night.
The 49ers lost a five-set match to the fifth-ranked Stanford Cardinal, 30-28, 18-30, 26-30, 30-26, 18-20, at the Walter Pyramid.
LBSU (10-13, 7-11 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) has lost all three matches against Stanford this season.
The ‘Niners were led by Dean Bittner, who had a game-high 36 kills to go with four service aces and four digs.
The final set featured nine ties and three lead changes as The Beach desperately tried to put the Cardinal away.
LBSU scored the first three points and forced a quick Stanford timeout. The Cardinal answered back and tied the set at 5-5. Long Beach made it 11-7 after a Josh Riley ace and looked to be in control but Stanford was resilient and tied the score again, this time at 12-12. The last set was back and forth but the 49ers could not close the door on Stanford as they fell to another MPSF opponent.
Stanford (17-8, 10-6 MPSF) was paced by Evan Romero’s team-high 20 kills and Brad Lawson, who added 19 kills while hitting .425.
Long Beach State began the game by hitting at a .474 clip with Bittner getting 10 kills in the opening set.
In the next two sets, the Cardinal began dominating the action at the net, outblocking The Beach 9-3.5 after three sets. LBSU also committed 10 more errors than Stanford during this stretch and the Cardinal took advantage by taking sets two and three.
The ‘Niners fought back with the efforts of Dan Alexander as he scored four straight points, including back-to-back aces, to give the 49ers a 23-21 lead in the fourth set. LBSU rode that momentum to force the deciding fifth set.
Dustin Watten became the 49ers all-time single-season leader in digs by collecting a team-high 19 digs. Watten, who now has 290, passed Jason Stimpfig’s mark of 282 digs in the 1993 season.
The 49ers will look to end their five-game losing streak Saturday night when they host the Pacific Tigers at 7 p.m.