A fan’s eye view of the volleyball contest last night in the ‘Myd…
1. This certainly is a rough week for the 49ers’ volleyball team; first USC (#5 in the nation) on Wednesday and 2 days later Pepperdine (#3 in the nation) on Friday. Long Beach gave SC all it could handle but ultimately fell short in 5; hopefully tonight they can step it up even more and beat Pepperdine.
2. LBSU’s defense looks a little out of sorts early, Klipsch is having to run a long way to get to the 2nd balls tonight.
3. A little late developing, but there appears to be a good crowd tonight. Then again on a Friday night, against a tough opponent, there should be a good crowd.
4. Of course it helps that Long Beach State has started out on fire; every long rally seems to be going Long Beach’s way.
5. Both setters have had to field the first ball a few times, leaving someone else to try and set. There is nothing more awkward than a non-setter trying to put one up.
6. The serving’s been good for LBSU so far; in fact I’d love to see a plus/minus stat for servers. Aces and errors are important but I’d love to see a stat at the end of the night of who was serving during a team’s best runs.
7. One more note about the server during a run—obviously they are doing something right (or at least not committing any service errors) but there are just certain rotations that put a team in their best positions. So the server is getting the ball in play, but the run is coming from the other 5 guys. Almost like when Manny Ramirez gets the credit for his RBIs but the batting order has to work out to where he’s coming to the plate with the right guys getting on base in front of him.
8. While I’m on sports analogies, I’ve been thinking about this one for a while—in volleyball, your setter is like your quarterback…if your quarterback didn’t know where the center was going to snap the ball.
9. After 2 sets, both Long Beach big wins, the rout appears to be on…this could be a short night.
10. #13, Derrick Trent has just a fantastic serve. In fact he’s been subbed in a few times just to put up what I’m calling the “J-Serve.” He starts back, with his right shoulder to the net, he then curves out a little and begins to approach the net (again think of him forming a J shape) before a little jump serve. Assistant Coach Crutchfield had to play a role in this; it’s not a fastball jump serve but it’s been effective.
11. Dustin Watten—the best Libero in the NCAA?
12. Sorry let me try that again…Dustin Watten—the best Libero in the NCAA!!! (he’s leading the nation in digs/game.)
13. In fact with guys like Trent and Watten, it’s easy to see the scrappy mentality—usually associated with the Dirtbags—across all of LBSU’s programs.
14. Oh, there’s free pizza after the game? That might explain the crowd.
15. Um, the rout talk might have been a bit premature. After Pepperdine won a close game three, they were trailing in game 4 but you can just feel the tide turning…in a very bad way.
16. Lot of hustle by both teams has let to quite a few run-ins with the courtside billboards. But I love it, it’s giving the court an Arena Football kind of feel. In fact I’d be onboard with making balls that go into the crowd still in play.
15. Dean Bittner is having a good game but he (and every other 49er) just doesn’t look as sharp as they did in the first few sets.
16. Game 5’s are a coin flip; and I don’t like LBSU’s luck right now
17. Ouch, Pepperdine is just on fire in the final game
18. It has been a rough couple of days for LBSU’s volleyball team. Two 5-game losses have to hurt.
19. Looking at the post-game stats, this thing was close. Both teams hit .319 on the night, but Long Beach got progressively worse as the night went on while Pepperdine hit .667 (.667!!) in the final set.
20. Long Beach won the first set by as many points (9) as Pepperdine won their 3 sets combined. But it doesn’t matter if you win the set by 2 or by twenty, you’ve got to get to 3 of them first and Long Beach just couldn’t do it.
21. Man, I am bummed. I don’t know what could possibly cheer me up at this point…oh wait, free pizza….