The Beach overpowered the Flyers with a 3-1 victory on Friday night. Coming off a win against Edward Waters last Saturday, The Beach was able to maintain their first place in the league and has currently an impressive 13-1 winnings on the season.
The Flyers were able to put up a good fight for Long Beach State since for most of the set, neither of the teams had a significant advantage over the other. Using their good servers and 16 kills, Long Beach State was able to get a 25-19 final score in the first set.
The Beach lost with a 26-24 for the Flyers on their second set with only 10 kills and 10 errors.
“We did a good job fighting to get back in and made it close,” head coach Alan Knipe said. “You are going to lose some sets to good teams, it is about responding and […] how quickly you respond and we responded nicely and quickly.”
The Beach dominated the last two sets with a score of 25-15 in the third set and 25-19 in the fourth set.
Knipe showed how much he trusts his players in the fourth set, he challenged a ball that was rolling and a violation for the net was given to The Beach.
“I wasn’t going to challenge and Dane [Hilis] said ‘Absolutely down, I saw it.’ So that’s roll, I’m going to get a challenge back in the fifth set anyway.” Knipe said.
Senior year middle blocker, Simon Torwie, played a huge role in helping the team defensively with one block solo and five block assists and offensively scored 13-of-16 kills.
Torwie said that changing the offensive routes with the setters was what helped him to get to the level of performance of this game.
“It worked out really well, we’ve been trying to do it all week, we’ve been trying to push it the weeks before that too,” Torwie said.
Senior Nathan Harlan, opposite hitter, showcased great communication on the field with his team players being able to navigate through different positions and being on full rotation on the last two sets.
“When I got subbed in, […] I was pretty dialed because Mason and Clark were very and Sky as well, were helping a lot.” Harlan said. “I’d like to say thanks to the guys around me. They made me feel right in, right in like nothing was changed and I felt really good all game.”
Mason Briggs, senior libero for Long Beach State, made the top five in LBSU Volleyball program history after surpassing 800 digs.
“To be in the top 5 or even top 10 in anything in Long Beach history, you know with this program is awesome,” Briggs said.
The Beach will confront their next opponent, Penn State Nittany Lions, next Friday night at The Walter Pyramid.