After suffering a frustrating three-game loss to Pepperdine two days prior, the Long Beach State men’s volleyball team closed out No. 8 Southern California in four games Friday night at the Walter Pyramid.
Four different LBSU players had already registered blocks midway through the first set, as the ‘Niners (9-4, 7-3 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) neutralized nearly all offensive attacks from USC anywhere near the net. The hustle and defensive stops that were absent in Wednesday night’s loss were evident in the 49ers’ early play.
LBSU was tied back and forth with USC all the way up until junior Ian Satterfield’s kill put the ‘Niners ahead by one and made it 20-19. The next serve saw one of the more exhausting rallies of the evening. The point ended with junior Taylor Crabb swinging a precise kill through the Trojan defense and giving LBSU a two-point lead.
The ‘Niners were then able to put a defensive stamp on the end of the first set by getting consecutive blocks from junior Jeff Ornee and freshman Taylor Gregory. The first set ended 25-21 and put LBSU up 1-0.
Gregory would end the evening hitting four of five and tallying six blocks for the 49ers.
“Taylor [Gregory] came up with some huge blocks for us,” Knipe said. “He’s a very cerebral volleyball player.”
In the second set The Beach continued its control of the front line with kills from senior Colton Echave and blocks from Gregory and junior Connor Olbright.
LBSU maintained a slim lead until kill from Crabb and an ace from junior Dalton Ammerman opened up the 49ers’ lead to 15-9 and forced USC to call a timeout.
The Trojans then managed to battle back to within two points of the ‘Niners, but LBSU kept up its level of play and ended the set by way of an Echave kill, making it 2-0 49ers.
The third set had USC making a surge and hitting .407 as a team. This combined with strong transitional play and LBSU failing to bring the defensive intensity from the first two sets had USC holding the lead the entire time. The Trojans would close out the set 25-20 and narrow their deficit to 2-1 for the match.
“In that third set it wasn’t so much that are defense was missing, but also that we didn’t have crisp passing,” Knipe said.
In the fourth set LBSU got behind early with a couple of errors, but quickly rebounded with consecutive kills from Ornee that knotted the set up at four.
The ‘Niners then returned to their winning form with concise passes that led to a 6-2 run by LBSU. USC then took a timeout with the score 20-15 in favor of the 49ers.
Out of the timeout the Trojans were able to cut the lead to two. LBSU then was able to rely on a set and kill combination from Olbright and Echave as the pair iced the game for the ‘Niners in the last two plays. The final saw LBSU coming out on top with a 3-1 match win by a score of 25-21, 25-21, 20-25 and 25-22.
USC’s Tanner Jansen and Ben Lam led the Trojans night with 13 kills each.
Knipe was pleased with his team’s improvement in the win over USC.
“The end product of blocking and attention to detail was significantly better for us tonight,” Knipe said.
The ‘Niners will now have a week to prepare for back-to-back games at the Walter Pyramid starting on Friday against No. 11 Pacific and ending Saturday against No. 4 Stanford.