By Long Beach State men’s volleyball is off to an electrifying 7-0 start to a season with major expectations. Pinned at the No. 3 slot going into last weekend, a pair of sweeps earned them a boost to the No. 1 spot in the country in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Poll.
With the season just briefly underway, The Beach has bounced around the top of the leaderboard, but with a statement win over No. 10 Pepperdine, LBSU was able to get the coaches’ attention and get the recognition they have rightfully earned. However, the team is not satisfied just yet.
“We don’t look at it too much, obviously it is good for the university and it’s good for the guys and the morale. We are mostly focused on just getting better every single day,” senior Clarke Godbold said.
The Beach has been nothing short of dominant in a small sample size this season. In their seven matches, they have posted a commanding record of 21-3 in their 24 played sets. The fourth set was the furthest any team has challenged The Beach thus far.
1/26/24 – Long Beach, Calif: Long Beach State’s Nathan Harlan senior opposite/outside hitter shows his jumping ability and spikes the ball across the court as Concordia struggles to stop The Beach’s offense all night. Harlan scored two spikes, one assist and four digs, which was the highest number of digs he had this season. Photo credit: Samuel Chacko
Long Beach State is looking to return to the familiar territory of reaching a home national championship match as they did in 2019, which concluded with The Beach celebrating back-to-back titles on their home court with a win over Hawai’i.
LBSU features one of the best offenses in the country and is a top-five team in hitting percentage in the nation at .368. Godbold has been a main catalyst for the offense and he currently is No. 4 in the country in both kills per set (4.1) and hitting .480.
“The thing that was most impressive for me and this is hopefully something we see through the course of the season is the transferring of information and training from our practice gym into match play,” head coach Alan Knipe said.
Anchoring the defense is reigning AVCA National Player of the Week and back-to-back Big West Defensive Player of the Week middle blocker Lazar Bouchkov. The freshman currently leads the nation in blocks with 1.8 per set and 44 in total.
“We got some new pieces, we got Lazar in the middle he’s been doing great. I think we are just staying consistent right now and some guys that have gotten older […] we all vibe really well together and are all super competitive,” Godbold said.
The homestand continues this weekend with a visit from King for two games before LBSU gets set for the ensuing weekend with a huge series against rival No. 5 UCLA.
The Bruins have had their fair share of history with The Beach in recent years, knocking each other out three of the previous four NCAA tournaments.
UCLA will not be the only volleyball powerhouse to visit The Walter Pyramid this season as on March 1, No. 8 Penn State will make the cross-country trip to Long Beach.
All six Big West teams are currently ranked within the top 20 in the nation leading to one of the most rigorous conference schedules in the country.
