A week without matches offered the Long Beach State men’s volleyball team the opportunity to rest up and refocus for the struggling, yet still dangerous Pacific Tigers (5-4, 3-4 MPSF).
The first set of the night saw LBSU jumping out to an early 8-3 lead with freshman Taylor Gregory, junior Dalton Ammerman, junior Taylor Crabb, senior Colton Echave and junior Jeff Ornee all registering kills.
The ‘Niners comfortably ran their offense until Pacific’s Taylor Hughes struck his fifth kill of the night to bring the Tigers within a point of The Beach.
From there LBSU began to reinstate its dominance in the set with an ace and a couple of kills from Crabb down the stretch.
Ornee, who led the way with four kills in the set for the ‘Niners, gave his team set point with a tip kill that landed in a gap between hustling Tiger defenders. The end of the set saw five different LBSU players registering two or more kills.
The ‘Niners week of rest seemed to be paying off.
The second set saw Pacific adapting and showing a little dominance of its own with strong play from senior Christian Ahlin. Ahlin was able to tally four of his team-high nine kills in the set and give the Tigers a much-needed offensive spark.
Midway through the set, Crabb started to heat up with a few high-flying kills that soared past Pacific’s back row.
After going down 18-19, Knipe called a timeout to settle his players.
Both teams came out in the next point aggressively digging for balls in the longest rally of the night. The rally ended with Long Beach State siding out by way of a punishing kill from the on-fire Crabb.
The score was then tied for the 20th time of the set at 21 apiece until back-to-back Pacific violations shot the ‘Niners ahead 23-21.
Crabb, who ended the night with a team-high 14 kills, added his ninth kill of the set to make it 24-22 and set point for the 49ers. Junior Connor Olbright ended the set by delivering an ace of his own to put LBSU up 2-0 in the match.
Gregory admitted that it was the talented play of Crabb in the second set that helped the ‘Niners to a win.
“He knows the game so well, and we all learn from him everyday,” Gregory said. “His athletic ability is better than anyone out there and his knowledge of the game really helps our whole team.”
In set three LBSU’s offense regained its top form with Ammerman, Crabb and Echave all knocking over kills to give the ‘Niners a two-point cushion over the Tigers.
Pacific battled back midway through the set to tie the score at 16, but the 49ers were able to surge as a team in the end with Gregory finding a kill backed up with a block making it 19-16. He would then find an opening in the Pacific defense to get his eighth and final kill of the night.
The ‘Niners then capitalized on the match point opportunity with a block from Ornee that sealed the deal and had them sweeping Pacific out of the Walter Pyramid 3-0.
Freshman Taylor Gregory’s play down the stretch helped to fend off any comeback attempts from Pacific. He insists that his play comes from a cohesive unit working together rather than individual accolades.
“The kills just come from good passing and Connor. It makes it so easy with our offense, we spread it out so well,” he said.
Gregory also attributed his team’s success to a week’s worth of sound practice.
“Everyone is working hard in the gym and we’re going to get better and work within our system to get to our goal to where we can put good matches together,” he said.
Fourth ranked LBSU (10-4, 8-3 MPSF) will try to make it three in a row when it heads back to the Walter Pyramid Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. to face the third ranked Stanford Cardinals.