After splitting the series with the University of Hawaii, the Long Beach State men’s volleyball team prepares to take on USC in another two-game series.
The Beach traveled to Honolulu where they battled The Rainbow Warriors and swept them 3-0 on Mar. 17. Hawaii responded the next night by defeating The Beach 3-0.
On Friday night sophomore outside hitter, Sotiris Siapanis achieved a career-high of 19 kills. Junior outside hitter Clarke Godbold also set a career-high that night with eight digs.
The Beach hit .484% in the first match and swept the Rainbow Warriors for the first time at The Stan Sherrif Center since 2018.
LBSU dropped its hitting number to .247% getting swept on the box score, but won the match in total team kills 40 to 36 on Saturday night.
“I’m proud of them, hitting almost 500 as a team is a big number against, at the time the number one ranked team in the country,” said head coach Alan Knipe.
The Beach shifts its focus now to take on No. 11 USC on back-to-back nights beginning Friday, Mar. 24.
LBSU played USC in a scrimmage earlier on in the fall as both programs used to be a part of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation before The Beach split to The Big West in 2018.
“We saw them in the fall,” said Knipe. “They have a lot of nice pieces and a lot of good athletes in their team we’re expecting them to play well.”
Despite taking a break from conference play, this game will be a highly anticipated matchup as The Beach is ranked No. 4 in the country and USC sits at No. 11. There will also be former men’s volleyball alumni in attendance at The Walter Pyramid for the home game on Friday which starts at 7 p.m.