UCLA Sweeps Away 49ers

The struggles this season were many for UCLA, a program not used to finishing in the middle of the Pacific 10 Conference, much less fidgeting nervously while the NCAA selection committee announced its women’s volleyball pairings Sunday.

But there the Bruins were Thursday, upsetting Long Beach State in the first round of the NCAA tournament, 30-25, 30-27, 30-21, at Pepperdine, and becoming the first team to sweep the 49ers since their loss to Stanford in last year’s NCAA championship.

Winners of six national titles, the Bruins had a rough regular season, losing four consecutive Pac-10 matches for the first time since 1997 and stumbling to a fifth-place tie with Washington.

Not to mention the horror of getting swept by USC ... twice.

“Losing does create doubts,” said outside hitter Lauren Fendrick, one of three UCLA players with nine kills Thursday.

“But when we played high-ranked teams, we’d back off a little bit and pull inside of our shell, and make errors on our own side of the net. It was nice tonight to see us overcome that and finish our games.”

Long Beach State’s problems started with the selection committee’s decision to send the 49ers (28-4) on the road for at least the first two rounds, an unpopular decision among Long Beach coaches and players.

Things didn’t get any better against UCLA (20-13). Long Beach swept the Bruins last year in the quarterfinals, but was outplayed in almost every category this time.

Traditionally strong defensively and in serving, the 49ers had fewer digs than UCLA, 42-39, and fewer aces, 8-2.

Perhaps most surprising: Long Beach State was third in the nation in blocks, but lost in that category as well, 11-6.

“I saw players on their team play like I’ve never seen them play before,” Long Beach State Coach Brian Gimmallaro said.

Elisha Thomas had 15 kills and Lindsay Phillips had 10 kills and nine hitting errors for Long Beach State. Heather Cullen had 10 kills for UCLA.

Pepperdine plays host to UCLA tonight in the second round. The Waves swept the Bruins, 37-35, 30-25, 30-25, in a nonconference match Nov. 12 at UCLA.

Pepperdine def. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, 30-19, 30-16, 30-19 -- Katie Wilkins had 13 kills and the Waves tied a school record with their 15th consecutive victory, matching a streak from the 1991 season.

Stacy Rouwenhorst had 11 kills and four blocks for the Waves (24-6), who continued to ride the momentum of a 14-0 record in West Coast Conference play.

“We said we have six steps to go [coming into the tournament]. We’re at one,” Pepperdine Coach Nina Matthies said.

Cal Poly (15-13) had 32 kills and 22 hitting errors.