Army West Point Athletics
Army West Point
3-3
Long Beach State
4-2
Long Beach State Hands Army 3-0 Defeat
September 06, 2014 | Volleyball
LONG BEACH, CALIF. – The opening match for Army at the Long Beach State Mizuno Invitational ended in disappointing fashion as the Black Knights fell 3-0 to Long Beach State on Friday night at Walter Pyramid.
Junior Nicole Perri led the Army offense with 11 kills and classmate Vanessa Edwards had 26 assists from her setter position. Edwards also added eight digs and Deanna Dalton tallied 13 of her own, which marked a season-high for the senior.
The loss puts Army at 2-4 on the season. Long Beach State improves to 4-2 with its third win in two days. Earlier in the day, The Beach swept Campbell 3-0.
“Long Beach State is a very impressive team,” head coach Alma Kovaci said. “We played tough in the first two sets, but made too many unforced errors. In the third set we dug ourselves into a hole and couldn’t find our rhythm. Long Beach served tough and blocked better than us tonight. It is another learning experience and we continue to get better, which is what really matters during these early season games.”
Long Beach State opened the match with the first two points before Army responded with three consecutive points to grab an early lead. Eight of the next 10 points went in Long Beach State’s favor as it built a 10-5 lead. The cushion extended to 10 points when Long Beach State went up 19-9. The Beach maintained their 10-point lead at 22-12 before Army’s late run.
Down 1-0 following the 25-17 set-one loss, Army looked to level the match at one set apiece. The two sides battled in a tightly contested set that featured nine ties, until Long Beach State put together a decisive run. With Army in command of a 16-15 advantage, the home team scored the next seven points to distance itself and secure a 2-0 lead in the match.
The third set was controlled from the get go as Long Beach State used a 12-0 run to open up a 15-3 lead. Long Beach State went on to close out the set (25-12) and the match.
Army has two matches scheduled for Saturday as they close out play at the Mizuno Invitational.The first match is against San Francisco at 2 p.m. ET, prior to an 8 p.m. ET tilt with Campbell. For a complete tournament schedule and Gametracker links, click here.
