By Mark Lindahl
No. 4 Long Beach State men’s volleyball team walloped Westcliff in a three-set sweep Friday night at the Walter Pyramid.
The Beach (8-1) controlled the game from start to finish with a score of 25-13, 25-15, 25-13, winning each set against the Lancers (5-5) by no less than 10 points.
“Tonight, our intent from zero-to-zero was to play our LB brand of volleyball and kind of just flex us,” Long Beach associate head coach Nick MacRae said.
Flex they did, as Long Beach sent thunderous kills left and right with the crowd on its feet in appreciation.
“We play that LB brand every single day in practice, it’s a culture here at Long Beach State,” redshirt senior setter Gary Trejo said. “It’s something that has been reinforced every single time out on the court, during practice and all the time.”
The Beach controlled the net with energy and length for the entirety of the game, recording 17 blocks compared to Westcliff’s four.
“It makes [my] job a lot easier when you have the type of service pressure that we have coming from the end-line,” redshirt sophomore opposite hitter Alex Anastassiades said.
Anastassiades finished the night with four kills, three blocks and provided a spark on the front line.
The Beach more than doubled the Lancer’s output in kills, 34-13, behind junior outside hitter Ryan Poole’s game-high nine.
“The communication between the passes is great, the setters we have have a nice flow,” Poole said. “It makes our job easy when we have all of those guys coming together.”
Long Beach ended the night finishing .500 on its barrage of kills.
“You guys saw tonight what we see and train every day,” MacRae said. “As far as preparation, that’s the thing we can control. We expect greatness and we have perfect preparation and so that’s the theme every single night and that’s why these guys choose to come to Long Beach State to play in the best gym in the world, in the nation.”
Long Beach State will travel to Pauley Pavilion to face No. 8 UCLA Saturday, Feb. 29 at 5 p.m.
