Long Beach State continued its strong conference play as they swept Cal Poly Friday night at the Walter Pyramid.
LBSU beat the Mustangs (7-6) 25-19, 25-22, and 25-15 in the third set to cap off the 49ers’ dominating performance. The 49ers (9-7) have continued their winning ways in conference play, having won their third straight match since the regular season began on Sept. 22.
“We have time to practice now,” head coach Brian Gimmillaro said. “We had four days of practice so we’ve improved since our last match.”
The extra time off in between matches has been a huge difference when it comes to the performance of the team.
“We would have one day of practice and then have to play [in the preseason] and it just doesn’t work,” Gimmillaro said.
Senior hitter Nele Barber led the 49ers in kills once again with 15 and managed to hit .344 in the match. Junior hitter Ashley Murray finished with seven kills and also contributed during key moments of the game.
“We had a great week of practice focusing on our communication and it really helped us tonight,” Barber said.
While the LBSU hitters had another strong showing, the 49ers had a season high 14 blocks on the night and caused problems for Cal Poly’s offense. The LBSU blockers held their opponent to a mere .106 hitting average on Friday night.
LBSU had a total of six solo blocks in the match with Sophomore Anete Brinke leading the way with three. The defensive performance electrified the crowd on hand and seemed to take away any sort of momentum Cal Poly tried to build up.
The 49ers will look to add another win to their record on tonight against UC Santa Barbara (10-6). When asked if the 49ers would be able to win another match in three sets against UCSB, Barber replied, “Oh yeah.”
LBSU is now the tied with Hawai’i atop the Big West standings, both at 3-0. The 49ers have two matches they face Hawai’i on Sept. 8.