Long Beach State Makes Final Four

The Long Beach State women’s volleyball team keeps coming closer to perfection.

By defeating UCLA, 30-25, 30-28, 30-21, Friday night in an NCAA regional championship game before 4,078 at Long Beach’s Pyramid, the No. 1-ranked 49ers (32-0) are two wins away from the school’s second perfect season in four years.

The 1998 team, led by Misty May, had the school’s first perfect season.

This year’s team will try to match that at the Final Four at San Diego State on Dec. 13 and 15. Long Beach opens against Arizona.

“As I told the players, make no mistake about it, we still have two matches left,” Long Beach Coach Brian Gimmillaro said.

So how good is this Long Beach team?

“We haven’t played our best match yet,” said 6-foot-7 Tayyiba Haneef, who had 21 kills against the Bruins and was named most valuable player of the regionals.

The 49ers, led by Haneef, Cheryl Weaver and Keri Nishimoto, all seniors, had too much firepower for the Bruins, who were fourth in the Pacific 10 and finished the season at 29-6.

All five of the Bruins’ regular-season losses came during a 13-game stretch in which their top player, Kristee Porter, was ineligible for violating NCAA rules.