By The Golden Eagles came into the game undefeated alongside The Beach ranked No. 3 in the AVCA/NVA National Collegiate polls and came into the week first in blocks per set.
Long Beach State sustained their momentum from yesterday’s Pepperdine sweep with a 13-6 run to end the first set but unlike the last game, The Beach would show their dominance quickly.
“Everyone came in and did their job,” head coach Alan Knipe said after the game. “I’m proud of the weekend […] I thought the guys did a really good job about making sure every point tonight […] had value.”
The consistent fake spikes and the occasional soft serving from The Beach confused Concordia all night as they gave a 57% hitting percentage and only forced two errors in the first set.
1/26/24 – Long Beach, Calif: Middle blocker and junior DiAeris McRaven played his second game of the season and scored 100% of his attacks. McRaven would end the game with two kills and two blocks as The Beach would beat Concordia 3-0. Photo credit: Samuel Chacko
Senior Clarke Godbold helped The Beach dominate set one 25-15 with his six kills in set one, which was more than any player the Golden Eagles had all night.
“You get a finite amount of time […] everything comes to a screeching halt at the end of May,” Knipe said.
Long Beach State didn’t let go as they had as high as a 14-3 run and only allowed the Golden Eagles to score eight points in the second set as they kept stepping on the gas pedal.
Concordia would allow 10 attack errors during that run, allowing Long Beach State to continue pilling on and keep momentum on their side.
“It’s the sheer competition in practice every day […] and everyone pushes each other and when your time is called, you’re going to play well,” senior opposite/outside hitter Nathan Harlan said.
1/26/24 – Long Beach, Calif: Freshman middle blocker Lazar Bouchkov showed his presence with a team-high eight blocks as he constantly put pressure on Concordia. The Beach would sweep yet another game 3-0 Saturday night at The Walter Pyramid. Photo credit: Samuel Chacko
The Golden Eagles would struggle defensively as they had no blocks and The Beach would hang 32 kills on their defense.
“Since we have so much talent in the gym […], there’s a lot of fierce competition that […] is more aggressive than maybe games that we play and indirectly that builds trust,” senior middle blocker Simon Torwie said.
The third set was more of the same for The Beach as they would hold Concordia to five kills and would commit zero attacking errors to end the game.
Godbold scored a team-high eight kills with Freshman Lazar Bouchkov with eight blocks and three kills to go along with that.
“Service aces and service pressure creating good blocking defense changes the mindset of offense,” Knipe said. “A really good defense could take you a long way and we really believe in that.”
Even though there was a small energy shift to Concordia in the last set, it was too little too late as Long Beach State would continue to put pressure on the Golden Eagles as they cruised to a 3-0 victory.
“They knew what they were coming to this program for and that is to completely buy into the process of being the best possible version of them by the end of the season,” Knipe said.
With Ohio State and UCLA recently losing this week, this win may have put Long Beach State in the prime No. 1 spot in the MVB polls, which will be found out on Monday.
The Beach will be going up against King at The Walter Pyramid in two back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday evenings.
