49ers Top Aztecs in Sweep

Golly, this must have been important. Even Fred Miller, SDSU’s athletic director, showed up.

So did 1,746 other people, but the Aztecs’ men’s volleyball team didn’t respond as No. 2-ranked Cal State Long Beach made it less of a match and more of a sweep, 15-9, 15-8, 15-10.

The 49ers (25-3) thus completed a three-match sweep against the No. 5 Aztecs (18-6), who won only two games in those three matches.

“They played us tough that first time,” 49er sophomore Brent Hilliard said. The first match was the only time the teams had gone to five games.

“And then the second time we had a really easy time. It’s like they either come out to play, or they come out and not all of them are fired up. I guess tonight was one of those nights.”

The Aztecs didn’t argue.

“Long Beach played great,” Aztec senior outside hitter Mike Mattarocci said. “What happened with us, I think, was that some of us were so overwhelmed with the pregame introductions of the seniors who are playing their last home game, overwhelmed by the crowd, and it distracted a lot of the guys. We had a lot of hitting errors tonight.”

That could almost be classified as an understatement. The Aztecs finished with a .127 hitting percentage. They had 44 kills, but 30 hitting errors.

On the other side of the net, Long Beach registered 55 kills and 21 hitting errors.

But the Aztecs didn’t have just an off-night at the net. They also had trouble getting the ball there.

Several times during the match, SDSU couldn’t handle Long Beach’s powerful serves and passed the ball not to the net, but just over it.

Which made for some easy kills for Long Beach. And, again, it all began with strong serving.

“They use their serves as an offensive weapon,” SDSU setter Tagore Evans said. “We would like to be able to do that, but we just aren’t as powerful.”

The Aztecs had leads in all three games, but could not sustain them.

SDSU went up, 2-0, and later, 7-5, in the first game before Long Beach took 10 of the next 12 points.

A similar pattern emerged in the second game. The Aztecs spurted to an 8-3 lead by virtue of strong team play.

But once they built that five-point lead, the Aztecs could not score again and the 49ers reeled off 12 unanswered points.

Again, the Aztecs took the initial lead in the final game, 2-0, but Long Beach deflated any hopes by winning 11 of the next 12 points.

Long Beach was led by Matt Lyles (15 kills), Brett Winslow (13) and Alan Knipe (12). The Aztecs got 15 kills from Mattarocci and 14 from Mike Schlegel.

Aztec Notes

By losing to Penn State over the weekend, the Aztecs have involved themselves in a top-20 controversy. When the latest coaches’ poll came out Tuesday, the Aztecs had fallen two places, from No. 3 to No. 5. Penn State moved up one slot, to No. 4. In the process, Cal State Northridge, which two weeks ago lost to the Aztecs, claimed SDSU’s former No. 3 spot.