Sports, Women's Sports, Women's Volleyball

The Beach goes undefeated

Domination defined the weekend.

At the Mizuno Invitational, the Long Beach State women’s volleyball team won every game, had the MVP of the tournament and held the best hitting percentage of the four teams it played.

The 49ers (5-2) hosted their first home tournament, which included their season opener, and defeated Idaho, Campbell, Army and San Francisco over the span of three days.

The Beach also stayed above a .200 hitting percentage each day and held three of the four teams under .100 while forcing U of I to .167.

Although LBSU’s star player Chisom Okpala was out for most of the tournament due to an injury, the team was still able to accomplish its fifth consecutive win after Saturday’s match against USF. Head coach Brian Gimmillaro was smiling all the way to the locker room for the postgame team talk.

“Our best player is Chisom,” Gimmillaro said. “She’s our All-American [and] she didn’t play…Ashley [Murray] had to fill in and did more than just fill in…[and] other people had to score more than they normally had to.”

Murray picked up her first career double-double with 11 blocks and 11 kills during the weekend’s last match against USF. Senior outside hitter Alex Reid led her team with 16 kills on a .450 clip while sophomore Joy Miley pitched in 10 kills and seven blocks.

The 49ers’ 32 block assists rank seventh all-time in LBSU history and matched last season’s five-set contest at San Francisco.

Out of the 72 players who participated in the Mizuno Invitational, junior outside hitter Alex Reid was named as the tournament’s MVP. Murray and senior Bre Mackie made the All-Tournament team along with four other players from the visiting teams.

The Beach made a major shift over the weekend after going 1-2 during last weekend’s tournament in Illinois. Players and Gimmillaro said that the team is more relaxed and prepared this time around.

“We definitely made a huge improvement [from last week], but I think our chemistry is building overtime,” senior libero Tyler Jackson said. “New players would ask me for advice and it feels good that I can help them adjust.”

Jackson recorded a match-high 24 digs to support the 49ers’ back row defense.

The 49ers will face six more teams before starting conference play at the end of this month, which means they will have spent an entire month playing a total of 13 teams. Although this gives a lot of time for more injuries to occur, Gimmillaro sees opportunities to broaden his players’ skills and experience.

“We wanted to get these guys a lot of [playing time because] we haven’t played much together,” Gimmillaro said. “Jenelle [Hudson] is new, Ashley’s new, Sophie [Bukovec]’s new and Lindsey [Lawmaster]’s new. Those are key parts of this team, so we got to put them out on the court…that’s why we’re playing so much.”

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