The Beach defeats defending national champion in tight encounter

The Long Beach State men’s volleyball team overcame a set one loss to beat the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors [22-25, 25-23, 26-24, 27-25] on Friday, April 1 at the Walter Pyramid.

“It was a hard-fought match, that’s for sure,” said LBSU head coach Alan Knipe.

Before the game, Hawaii, the defending national champion was the no. 3 ranked team in the country in hitting percentage (.353), one spot ahead of LBSU. The Beach dominated that side of the ball with a .324 hitting percentage while the visitors could only muster a .264 from the attack.

Early on, The Beach also did well mixing its attacks to avoid blocks on the other side of the net. The Rainbow Warriors are the best team in the country in team blocks per set, but they could not block the assists until the second game.

Hawaii’s average block defense and redshirt junior outside hitter Spencer Olivier’s eight kills in set one weren’t enough to keep the visitors from taking the lead. The Rainbow Warriors ended the set hitting .389 and had five more kills than The Beach. LBSU managed to bounce back in set two, tying up the match.

“It comes down to a play here or there,” Knipe said, following a set two that saw 14 ties and five lead changes.

Freshman outside hitter Alex Nikolov started cold with three kills in set one but eventually hit nine, five, and six in the final three frames for a total of 23 kills, a game-high.

Sophomore libero Mason Briggs had a game-high 17 digs and 28 successful passes tonight, according to Knipe. The 26 serving errors from The Beach at the line, Knipe said, were “uncharacteristic, but we still ended up with eight aces.”

In set three, the Rainbow Warriors’ hitting percentage decreased from .382 to .295 after hitting in .074 in the third frame. The .154 in set four didn’t help as The Beach took control after being down 19-16, only to come back and win its third set and the match.

victory by Long Beach State men's volleyball against reigning national champions Hawaii on Friday, April 1at the Walter Pyramid. Photo credit: Ignacio Cervantes” align=”aligncenter” id=”attachment_69525″ width=”475″]

“Give a lot of credit to our block and the way we go into the match prepping for our block,” Briggs said. “The guys finding their groove and doing their job right from the start, that’s what gives us the opportunity to create those plays, gives us the opportunity to create those plays, and gives me the opportunity to get digs.”

In a game with 52 ties and 16 lead changes, Knipe felt a key figure in The Beach’s win wouldn’t show up in the stats. Further, Olivier mentioned the importance of players that came in and performed.

“We had serving subs that did a great job hitting their serves, doing what they can do [when coming in],” Olivier said. “It came down to that.”

The Beach will return to the court to face the Rainbow Warriors again in the Big West Conference at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 2 at the Walter Pyramid.

“We need to feel like it’s halftime right now and get ready for the third quarter.”