Five Long Beach State players had double-digit kills as the 49ers used a balanced effort to beat UC Santa Barbara 30-20, 26-30, 30-20, 30-24 Friday night in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation action at the Walter Pyramid.
Josh Riley led The Beach (12-13, 9-11 MPSF) with 17 kills, while hitting .375. Freshman Jim Baughman added a career-high 15 kills and a .571 hitting percentage, while Dean Bittner had 15 kills and Kyle Friend and Dan Alexander each chipped in 10. Friend hit .421, while Alexander had a team-best .588 hitting percentage. LBSU outhit UCSB .364 to .256.
Mike Klipsch handed out 56 assists to lead the 49ers to the win.
The Beach took control of the first set with an 8-2 run that saw the 49ers build the lead from 12-10 to 20-12. Long Beach State closed out the set with an 8-3 run to take a 1-0 lead. Baughman and Friend led a balanced 49er attack in the first set with six kills each, while Riley added four kills. Friend hit .857, Baughman .714 and Riley .500 to pace LBSU to a .438 hitting percentage while UCSB (8-17, 4-16) struggled hitting just .094.
LBSU used a pair of 4-0 runs in the second set to take an 18-15 lead, but the Gauchos came storming back outscoring the 49ers 15-8 the rest of the way to tie the match at 1-1. UCSB outhit LBSU .387 to .367 in the game. Riley led The Beach with six kills, while Bittner added four kills and a .429 hitting percentage.
Long Beach State dominated the third set building leads as big as 10 points including the final score to take a 2-1 lead. Bittner led the 49ers with seven kills and a .600 hitting percentage, while three others had three or more kills and all hit over .333. The Beach outhit UCSB .455 to .308 in the set.
The 49ers polished off the Gauchos winning set five easily despite hitting just .182. Riley had four kills and hit .333 in the set to lead LBSU.
Long Beach State hosts No. 3 Cal State Northridge Saturday night in the final home game for the 49ers.
Report By LBSU