The Long Beach State women’s volleyball team extended its winning streak to six games by beating Central Arkansas on Saturday night at the Walter Pyramid.
LBSU (8-2) took all three sets, 25-16, 25-21 and 25-23, to sweep the Sugar Bears. Even though the 49ers completed their weekend objective, sophomore middle blocker Ashley Murray said there is still a lot of room for improvement.
“Right now we’re just happy that we’re winning games, especially with the rotation change,” Murray said. “We weren’t expecting having a tough time trying to get these wins, and it has been rough along the road. Like, certain games we should have won 3-0 and we won going to four or five sets.”
Murray led the offensive attack for the 49ers in the final match of the LBSU/LMU Mizuno Invitational. The reigning Big West freshman of the year finished with 12 kills and a .526 hitting percentage.
Junior outside hitter Nele Barber was a force in the front court and stymied Central Arkansas’s offense. The Berlin native recorded her fourth straight double-double, contributing 10 kills on offense and scooping up 12 digs on defense.
LBSU dominated the first set, quickly going up 3-0 and finished the set with a productive .500 hitting percentage. After jumping out to a 10-point lead, freshman outside hitter Carly Beddingfield closed out the first set with a kill set up by senior Jenelle Hudson.
Hudson guided the 49ers offense over the weekend recording a total of 163 assists. Like Murray, Hudson believes the 49ers still have a lot of “little things” that they can work on.
“We came out strong [against Central Arkansas] but there is still a lot of places to improve,” Hudson said. “We have a big weekend next weekend, we have a lot to do.”
In the second set LBSU continued its dominance and jumped out to a quick 8-1 lead. Freshman libero Mykah Wilson delivered a big block midway through the set, which gave the 49ers a 9-3 lead.
The Sugar Bears (2-7) chipped into the lead, but couldn’t hold off LBSU’s offense, which connected on half of its hitting attempts.
“LBSU is a very strong team that kept the pressure on, they made adjustments to the adjustments we were making,” Central Arkansas head coach Jeni Jones said. “They made those a lot quicker than we did.”
Coming off a competitive set, the Sugar Bears were ahead for most of the third set. Down 23-21, the 49ers had to come-from-behind to take the set.
A leg-kicking dig by Barber helped LBSU’s cause and helped the momentum swing back to The Beach.
Back-to-back Central Arkansas errors on offense gave the set and match to the 49ers.
LBSU started off its weekend with a come from behind win against Loyola Marymount. LMU took the first two sets, but the 49ers quickly turned the page and took three consecutive sets, winning 25-22, 26-24 and 15-12.
LBSU returned to the Walter Pyramid and beat Oakland University (Rochester, Michigan) in four sets on Friday night. Senior setter Jenelle Hudson led The Beach’s offense setting up 45 assists, while contributing seven kills and seven digs.
The 49ers return to action on Friday against the University of San Diego at 11:30 a.m. and No. 17 UCLA at 7:30 p.m. at the Walter Pyramid.