The Long Beach State women’s volleyball team will embark on its last tournament before conference play, facing three teams in the Roadrunner Classic Volleyball Tournament this weekend in Bakersfield.
The 49ers (8-3) hold a three-game winning streak and after sweeping at the “LBSU/LMU [Loyola Marymount University] Tournament” last weekend.
Head coach Brian Gimmillaro said the team’s last match against Saint Mary’s was the first time he has seen his team relaxed this season. He said hopes the team continues that momentum.
“They finally stopped fighting themselves and just performed,” Gimmillaro said. “Being good at anything is very difficult and being good as a team is really hard. But it’s growing [and] it’s getting better…”
Fresno State (5-6), like LBSU, is coming off a 3-1 record from its last tournament. The Bulldogs lost their last match during their four-match tournament to Saint John’s while the 49ers lost their first match to LMU.
Junior Zana Bowens leads the Bulldogs with 144 kills and 21 aces. Bowens is also second in digs with 121 behind Maggie Eppright with 154. Senior Maci Murdock leads the team with 39 blocks.
This will be the teams’ first meeting in over a decade, with LBSU leading the series against Fresno State 17-2.
CSU Bakersfield (3-7) snapped its seven-game losing streak against San Jose State winning 3-1 in the Cal Poly ShareSLO Tournament last weekend.
“It’s kind of surprising to me that they’re not winning because they have a very athletic and experienced team,” Gimmillaro said.
The Roadrunners will be playing their first home games of the season at this tournament. Gimmillaro attributed the Roadrunners’ poor start to having a new coach and them being away all season, but also mentioned that they have a lot of returners and good foreign and versatile players.
The Runners are led by junior Kelsee Sawyer with 115 kills. Senior Molly O’Hagan follows with 112 kills and leads the team with 40 blocks. Senior libero Mariah Alvidrez is a force in the back row with 5.03 digs per set.
Oregon State (7-1) suffered its first loss of the season after falling 3-1 to No. 23 Michigan State. Freshman standout Mary-Kate Marshall leads the team with 115 kills. Marshall has had double-digit kills in all of her outings, recording 21 kills twice already in this early season.
“She has 140 more attempts than the next player on the team,” said Gimmillaro. “She’s getting the ball all the time. We know she’s going to get the ball, [so we’ll] try to dig her, block her, [and] serve parts of the court where it’s not as easy to get the ball to her.”
But Gimmillaro doesn’t plan on spending too much time making it difficult for just Marshall to get the ball because of the Beaver’s talented roster.
Senior Arica Nassar is a threat at the net with 45 blocks while junior Darby Reeder leads with 123 digs.
This match against OSU will be the 49ers’ fourth meeting with the Beavers, who leads the series 2-1.
OSU leads all other teams in the tournament with a cumulative .294 hitting percentage while CSU Bakersfield holds the lowest with a .188 hitting percentage.
Junior Alex Reid leads LBSU with 100 kills while senior Bre Mackie follows with 92 kills and matches Nassar’s 45 blocks, which also leads the 49ers. Senior libero Tyler Jackson continues to lead the back row with 153 digs.
The 49ers (8-3) will play Fresno State at 12 p.m. Friday, and CSU Bakersfield at 7:30 p.m. They will face Pac-12 OSU at 4 p.m. Saturday to end the tournament.