Long Beach State improved its hitting to .255 against Louisiana State but the Tigers answered with .275 hitting of their own in a 25-20, 21-25, 20-25, 21-25 loss on Saturday morning. Caitlin Ledoux and Naomi Washington tied for the team lead with 13 kills.

Long Beach State, led by Brittney Herzog, who had 11 kills on .385 hitting, made a marked adjustment on the team’s hitting from yesterday’s match to hit .255 overall, but were undone by Brittnee Cooper and the rest of the Tigers attack. Cooper hit .447 with 21 kills, and carried the Tigers from the second game on.

Trailing early in the first set 4-1, Long Beach State responded to the early adversity to tie the match at 7-7, and eventually take the lead at 9-8. Three straight kills from the 49ers then gave Long Beach State a solid cushion at 12-8. The 49ers never relinquished the lead from that point, using five kills from Herzog to grab a 25-20 win.

In the second set, a string of attack errors for the 49ers allowed LSU the lead at 7-4. Cooper began to work from there, finishing the set with six kills while Lauren DeGirolamo had three kills on three swings for the Tigers.

Long Beach State again fell behind 7-4 in the third set, and the team was never able to cut the lead down to less than two, while the Tigers never grabbed a large lead as the team’s moved to the fourth set.

In the final set, Long Beach State again fell behind early 13-7, but rallied to cut the lead to one at 17-16 behind a pair of Marina Skender attack errors and two kills by Ledoux. After an LSU timeout, the Tigers settled down and hit Cooper and DeGiarmolo down the stretch to close out a 25-21 set four win along with the match.

Long Beach State returns to Fogelman Arena Saturday evening for a second match on the day. The 49ers will play host Tulane in the final match of the tournament beginning at 6 p.m. PT.

From LBSU reports