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Health & Fitness

49er Men's Volleyball Wins Third in a Row

49ers returns home to win three in a row, including its first conference victory over Cal State Northridege.

The Long Beach State men’s volleyball team picked up its third consecutive victory and its first conference win against the Cal State Northridge Matadors Friday night in an MPSF match. Northridge defeated the 49ers earlier this year in five sets, 25-15, 20-25, 25-22, 14-25, 11-15. MPSF is Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

“For the last two weeks since that loss we’ve had great practices,” sophomore Taylor Crabb said.  “We’ve changed our attitude and were more focused.”

Brad Hemmerling led the way for the Beach with 13 kills, two aces, three digs and five blocks.  Crabb finished with 10 kills two aces, seven digs and two blocks, while Ryan Meehan added seven kills, three digs and four blocks and Conner Olbright dished out 25 assists.

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“We tried to integrate the bigs more,” Crabb said.  “We have a great setter in Conner (Olbright) and then me and Brad (Hammerling) who can hit the ball well.”

Long Beach (5-4, 1-3 MPSF) jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead behind two Meehan kills.  Northridge finally got on the board when a 49er attack went wide.  The Matadors would get as close as 12-8 behind Marty Lorenz’s only kill of the evening, but would get no closer as the 49ers will close out the first set with an 8-5 run featuring back to back blocks to take the set 25-16.

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“I wanted them to do something good three times in a row,” 49er interim head coach Andy Read said, “whether it be kills, defensively or serving.  I wanted to instill to do the right thing again and again and again that they get sick of hearing it.  Tonight they bought into it.”

Northridge (3-6, 1-4 MPSF) would find the mark, after hitting a miniscule -.062 in the first set.  They would hit .240 and .280 respectively, tallying 11 and 12 kills.

Matt Stork and Julius Hoefer recorded seven kills apiece, while Drew Staker recorded six kills for the Matadors.

The 'Niners  followed up its first home victory two weeks ago with an easy win against the Princeton Tigers Tuesday, 25-13, 25-9, and 25-18

Jim Baughman led the way with eight kills for the Beach, while Hammerling tallied sevenn kills.  Crabb and Ian Satterfield tallied six kills apiece for the Beach.

Long Beach hosts the Stanford Cardinal next Friday, first serve is at 7pm.

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