By Davis Ramage
Long Beach State wins over Cal State University Northridge and University California Irvine (3-1, 3-1) clinch The Beach’s first Big West Championship since 2018.
The conference championship sealed the No. 2 seed and The Beach’s third straight birth in the National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship.
Senior outside hitter Clarke Godbold took home the tournament MVP as he tallied 35 kills and six blocks across the two games.
2/09/24 – Long Beach, Calif: Senior outside hitter Clarke Godbold celebrates one of his 12 kills against the then-No. 4 UCLA at the packed-out Walter Pyramid. Godbold picked up the Big West Tournament MVP as The Beach defeated UCI to claim the Big West Championship. Photo credit: Samuel Chacko
Efficiency and discipline carried Long Beach State to its win over CSUN as it hit .106 better than the Matators and made nine fewer errors. The Matadors had the same amount of kills with 54 and assists with 52 each.
The four-set thriller saw 38 ties and 14 lead changes, but ultimately The Beach came out on top with timely hitting and a lack of mistakes.
Saturday’s match against the UCI Anteaters saw The Beach be more dominant and come out on top yet again.
Long Beach State won the first set by a slim margin of two points and dropped the second set, but was dominant in the third and fourth sets where they scored 25-16 and 25-15 respectively.
The Beach came out on top in every major statistical category including out-hitting the Anteaters by 13 and out-blocking them by eight.
3/16/24 – Long Beach, Calif: Long Beach State Senior Libero Mason Briggs celebrates with his team at The Walter Pyramid against Hawai'i in a back-and-forth 3-2 victory. Briggs and The Beach won its first Big West Championship since 2018. Photo credit: Samuel Chacko
Senior middle blocker Simon Torwie and Godbold combined for 11 blocks of their own en route to the Big West Championship.
The NCAA selection show announced on Sunday that the No. 2 seeded Long Beach State will go up against No. 7 Belmont Abbey in the first round of the National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship. This will take place at the Walter Pyramid on April 30 at 7:30 p.m.
