UC Irvine Drops to No. 24 Long Beach State
November 19, 2011 | Women's Volleyball
LONG BEACH, Calif. --- UC Irvine took the first set off the 24th-ranked 49ers but ultimately fell to Long Beach State, 19-25, 25-16, 25-15, 25-17 Saturday to conclude Big West Conference action.
Aly Squires paced the Anteaters with seven kills and 10 digs while Shaina Olsen chipped in seven kills. Kristin Winkler led all players with 12 digs to go along with a pair of aces. Mary Carls and Marissa Alvarez posted 20 and 11 assists, respectively and Shannon Fleming topped all players with five block assists.
UCI erased a three-point Long Beach State lead in the first set by scoring five unanswered points to claim a 15-13 edge as Fleming and Olsen capped the run with the block on Erin Juley. The Anteaters maintained a three-point lead and at 22-19, a 49er attack error was followed by a solo block from Arielle Manz to give UCI set point. Haleigh Hampton's next attempt missed the mark as UCI took the first frame.
Long Beach State answered by jumping out to a 12-4 lead in the second set with Hampton serving for nine points. UCI cut the lead to six points on an ace by Shannon Fleming but LBSU would work the lead back to 10 using a four-point run and would go on to tie the match on a kill from Alma Serna.
The 49ers used a six-point rally to take the early 7-2 lead and never looked back. UCI came to within three points at 10-7 on a LBSU attack error but the Beach out-scored the Anteaters 7-1 to establish a comfortable 18-9 advantage. Back-to-back UCI errors were followed by a kill from Mackie to close out the set.
Kills from Fleming and Pauline Acres sandwiched a LBSU error as UCI took a 6-3 lead to kick off the final frame. The 49ers responded with a 7-1 run to lead 10-7 and would hold off UCI the rest of the way. The Anteaters came to within two points at 15-13 on the put-away from Acres but Long Beach was able to string together consecutive points and eventually widened the margin to six at 22-16. Manz notched the final point for the Anteaters before the 49ers would score the final three points.
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