The No. 9-ranked Long Beach State men’s volleyball team closed out the season series against No. 14 Hawaii with a four-set victory Saturday night at the Stan Sheriff Center.
LBSU (13-12, 8-10 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) captured their second three-match win streak of the season with Saturday’s win – 27-15, 26-24, 20-25, 25-22.
Sophomore Taylor Crabb tied a career high with 20 kills on a .421 hitting percentage. Classmate Jeff Ornee added 13 kills on a .476 clip, seven blocks, and a career-best four digs. Senior middle blocker Ryan Meehan added seven kills and a season-best nine blocks.
Junior Ka’ahukane Leite-Ah Yo played outside of his normal setter position to lead the Warriors attack with 19 kills and eight digs. Sophomore Sam Biscaro paced the Warriors attack with 56 assists and seven digs.
LBSU’s win keeps them tied with Pepperdine for sixth in the MPSF with only two weeks left to go in the regular season. LBSU will face No. 5 Stanford, No. 11 Pacific, No. 2 USC and No. 6 Pepperdine to close out the MSPF play.
Knowing their postseason hopes were on the line, the ‘Niners came out strong on the defensive side of the net again, out-blocking Hawaii 18.5-8.
Each team matched each other’s intensity in the first set, trading runs until late in the opening stanza. With the score tied at 25-25 Meehan assisted back-to-back blocks with seniors Brad Hemmerling and Srdjan Nadazdin respectively to grab hold of the lead early on.
The second set saw a much more dominant LBSU effort. The ‘Niners went on a 7-1 run early in the second behind their middle blockers. Meehan pitched in two of his seven kills during the run while Ornee got back-to-back block assists to put LBSU up 13-7.
A late surge by Hawaii gave the Warriors their own 7-1 run giving them a 21-20 advantage.
LBSU who had struggled in tight situations all season found themselves staring a 23-24 lead in the face after Biscaro aced the ‘Niners.
LBSU answered with a triple block from Connor Olbright, Hemmerling and Ornee. The Beach followed the momentum-shifting block with back-to-back kills by Crabb to put LBSU up two sets to none.
After trading points early on the third set UH finally put things together. A six-point run to put the Warriors up 19-14 was all Hawaii needed to seal a fourth set. Leite-Ah Yo scored six kills in the fourth set alone and UH had an impressive 18 kills at a .406 clip as a team.
LBSU came out flat early on in the fourth and it looked like the momentum had shifted in favor of the home team after a Crabb attack error put UH up 10-7.
The ‘Niners battled back with a 6-2 run behind four Warrior attack errors to put The Beach on top 14-13.
Every time LBSU seemed to pull away from UH, the Warriors answered with runs of their own.
Senior Steven Hunt got a late kill to cut the LBSU lead to 23-22. However, Hawaii could not hold on to the momentum and followed with back-to-back attack errors including an Olbright-Meehan block to end the match and any postseason dreams UH had.
LBSU must now gear up for a tough road trip when they will travel to Northern California on Apr. 6 and 7 to take on No. 5 Stanford and No. 11 Pacific. Both matches are scheduled for 7 p.m.