Long Beach State men's volleyball swept out of MPSF by UCLA

A promising season may have come to an end for the Long Beach State men’s volleyball team. The 49ers were swept by second-seed UCLA in the semifinals of the MPSF Touament, 26-24, 28-26, 25-19, in Provo, Utah.

The 49ers, ranked No. 4 by the AVCA, held set point in the first two sets but lost both to the Bruins, who are now 3-0 against Long Beach State this season and ranked No. 3.

The loss is very possibly the end of the road for the 49ers, who will now have to await word of their NCAA fate. There is still a chance they could be one of the six teams selected for the NCAA finals. The selection show will stream live on NCAA.com Sunday at 10 a.m.

Baseball

The Dirtbags, who are up to No. 17 in the latest Baseball America poll, are in a strange position considering their 21-13 season has been a success. LBSU has won eight of the nine weekend series it has played, but has also failed five times to sweep an opponent on Sunday. Two of those series finales have been in the If they went the other way, the Dirtbags would be tied for second place in the conference, just a game back of first place UC Santa Barbara. That has been frustrating for an LBSU squad with high expectations, but head coach Troy Buckley wants to make sure his team doesn’t loose sight of the overall goal.

“Focusing on the big picture, we’re wiing weekends, and there’s a lot of Big West baseball left,” Buckley said. “We’re on the right path. I think we’ll end up where we should be.”

LBSU is in fifth place in the Big West with a 5-4 conference record, just one game in front of UC Riverside (15-19, 3-3 Big West) which it hosts this weekend. The opener is at 6 tonight. The Highlanders are led by Vince Feandez, who has a team-high .348 batting average, 24 RBIs and .434 on-base percentage. The series will continue at the same time on Saturday and will conclude at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

In other news this week, Dirtbags sophomore pitcher Darren McCaughan is one of 60 college baseball players to make USA Baseball’s midseason watch list for the 39th aual Golden Spikes Award, an aual honor for the best amateur baseball player in the nation. McCaughan has a 6-1 record with a 1.78 ERA through nine appearances, eight of which were quality starts. The Downey native has not allowed more than three runs in any game, and struck out a career-high 10 batters last weekend at Cal State Northridge.

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- JJ Fiddler

Softball

After getting swept at home last weekend, the 49ers (24-16, 4-5 Big West) are back on the road to take on UC Santa Barbara, where LBSU clinched the Big West title two years ago. The series starts with a doubleheader at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

“We’re trying to get back to where we were before conference,” LBSU coach Kim Sowder said. Her team’s on-base percentage is .283 in Big West action after almost reaching .400 during non conference play.

“Injuries have put extra pressure on everyone,” Sowder said. “We need to stay within ourselves. We’re not as confident. I’m glad we’re going on the road because that’s where we’ve played the majority of our season.”

UCSB (21-23, 4-5) is led by sophomore Jessica Johnston, who is hitting .338 with 26 RBIs and nine doubles.

- JJ Fiddler

Women’s Golf

Senior Kassidy Teare was named the 2016 Big West Women’s Golfer of the Year this week while teammate Haley Tygret won the Big West Women’s Golf Co-Freshman of the Year honor. Teare, who had a Big West-best 72.1 stroke average, is the first LSBU player to win the award since Kay Hoey won in 2007. Teare finished second at the Big West Conference Championship earlier this week while leading LBSU to fourth-place at The Bay Course at the Kapalua Resort.

Track & Field

The 49ers will take 29 athletes (15 men, 14 women) to La Jolla on Friday and Saturday to compete in nine field events at the Triton Invitational at UC San Diego’s Triton Track & Field Stadium.

Women’s Water Polo

With their perfect Big West record on the line, the 49ers were at UC Irvine on Thursday night and will host UC Santa Barbara at noon on Saturday in the regular season finale. Two wins will give LBSU its first Big West regular season title.