No. 1 Long Beach State’s men’s volleyball’s offense was firing on all cylinders Friday night at the Walter Pyramid, as the team swept its match against No. 2 UCLA 3-0 [25-22, 25-23, 25-13].
Outside hitter Clarke Godbold had a career offensive night. The sophomore led both teams with 17 on the night, a new career-high, and finished with a .571 hitting percentage. The team hit .400 throughout the match.
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“Aidan [Knipe] set us up really well, and with the two big left sides we have, I can find myself in one-on-one situations and I just have to put the ball away,” Godbold said. “I thought [UCLA] served well, but we passed pretty well so I can do my job.”
The Pyramid was packed with fans coming to watch the two top collegiate teams in the nation battle it out. The crowd was on its feet when The Beach dominated the third set, securing the win by 12 points.
“It’s absolutely amazing to have this kind of fan base and be able to play in front of this kind of crowd and experience this firsthand,” middle blocker Grant Marocchi said. “This is my first time playing in front of a crowd like this. It’s a dream come true.”
The win puts LBSU’s record at 7-1 for the year, with their only loss coming against Penn State two weeks ago. As conference games are approaching for The Beach, the team will play four more non-conference matchups until March 10.
“As the match goes those were two really good first sets, and then the third set… everything kind of went our way,” head coach Alan Knipe said. “[There was] a lot of service pressure from UCLA, but I thought our pastors did a great job tonight.”
After a miserable first set last week against USC, Knipe and The Beach made sure that going into an early deficit was something they wanted to avoid tonight. LBSU was able to match UCLA as both teams were scoring back and forth in the match.
No team led by more than three points. After tying the game at 19 points in the first set, Long Beach was able to go on a 6-3 run to win the first set.
“I thought the difference in that first set really was our servers off the bench all came in and scored points,” Knipe said. “Calvin [Sanborn], Simon [Torwie], and [Nathan] Harlan all did a really good job and gave us that little spark to get us over the first step.”
The second set saw more of the same between the two teams. It was a back and forth, with The Beach gaining a 20-15 lead. UCLA would make the set close as it was 23-22 but a service error by UCLA and a kill by Godbold helped LBSU secure the second set.
“We were prepared for UCLA to be ready for us, and we knew we needed to handle our side,” Marocchi said. “I thought we did a great job of handling our side, keeping our composure, and doing what we needed to do to pass the serve to keep the pressure on [UCLA’s] side.”
After two tightly played sets, the third one was a blowout. After getting to a 15-10 lead, LBSU went on an impressive 6-0 run, with Godbold tacking on four kills in the process. The Beach took the final set by 12 points, sweeping The Bruins.
“We aren’t gonna put a whole lot into that, other than it feels good,” Knipe said.
The Beach was able to keep Ido David, one of UCLA’s top offensive performers, quiet Friday night. David came into the match with 3.16 kills per set on a .352 attack percentage. LBSU was able to hold him to a .231 hitting percentage.
“[David] is a really great player with a great arm,” Knipe said. “Out of the gate, we did a really good job getting some quality touches and blocked a few balls on him early.”
The Beach and The Bruins won’t have to wait long for a rematch. LBSU will travel to Pauley Pavilion and take on UCLA on their home court at 7 p.m. next Friday.
“This is kind of half-time for us,” Knipe said. “We know we’ll see another great matchup there. This is exactly why we wanted these matches on the schedule.”