Sacramento State dropped a hard-fought match with No. 24 Long Beach State 3-2 (19-30, 30-24, 25-30, 30-24, 15-11) Saturday evening at the Mizuno Classic inside the Walter Pyramid. It was the Hornets’second match of the day against a top-25 team, as they fell 3-1 (30-25, 24-30, 37-35, 30-27) to No. 18 San Diego during the afternoon game.Sacramento State is now 1-2 on the season, while Long Beach State improves to 2-0.
For the third consecutive game, junior Atlee Hubbard posted a double-double with 20 kills and 15 digs. Juniors Shannon Roland and Kristin Lutes also got in on the action with Roland tallying 17 kills and Lutes coming up with 20 digs. Sophomore Lindsay Haupt added 13 kills and led the Hornets with five blocks, bringing her season total to 17. Freshman Rose Burke also contributed a career-high 59 assists.
The Hornets came out in the first game posting a .333 hitting percentage and recording 15 kills while holding Long Beach State to .156. The 49ers answered in the second game with 17 kills and a .282 hitting percentage. After the third game, where Sacramento State recorded a .375 hitting percentage, Long Beach State evened things up in the fourth game with 17 kills and a .250 hitting percentage before winning the fifth game.
The 49ers were led by Quincy Verdin’s 15 kills, while Ali Daley posted a match-high 23 digs to go along with 12 kills. Alexis Crimes led all players with 13 blocks in addition to her 13 kills.
In their first game of the day against San Diego, the Hornets were led by Roland’s 16 kills, while senior Shannon Arts and Hubbard tacked on 12 and 11, respectively.
Lutes and senior Mallory Hook had 15 digs apiece, while freshman Rose Burke added 11.
San Diego was led by Kristen Carlson’s 27 kills and 25 digs. The Toreros held the Hornets to a .102 hitting percentage in the first game before Sacramento State evened things up in the second game, holding San Diego to a .043 hitting percentage.
In the third game, the Toreros posted a .390 hitting percentage in the drawn-out 37-35 game before another close 30-27 win in the fourth game. San Diego’s Christie Dawson and Moira McCarthy also posted double figures with 16 kills each.
Sacramento State returns to the Nest at 7 p.m. on Tuesday for its home opener against Santa Clara.