By In a night of high-energy volleyball, No.1 Long Beach State men’s volleyball extended its winning streak with a defeat of the Concordia University Irvine Eagles in three sets at the Gold Mine Friday night.
The game originally scheduled for the Walter Pyramid was moved due to a bridge connected to the Pyramid collapsing, but that didn’t deter fans from filling the smaller venue.
The crowd was electric as the match marked the second home game of the season and coincided with the first week of the spring semester. Students packed the stands, joined by a strong showing of non-student-neutral fans.
“I want to play in the pyramid every night, you know. But there’s been a lot of great volleyball and great basketball, for that matter, played in this gym, so there’s a lot of history to it,” head coach Alan Knipe said.
The match was played in the Gold Mine due to the current conditions of the Walter Pyramid. Many of the Beach sports teams have used the old gymnasium, but fans still manage to support the No. 1 ranked Long Beach State on Jan. 24. Photo credit: Mark Siquig
The opening set saw the Eagles take an early 3-0 lead before an errant serve gave The Beach its first point.
LBSU struggled to find their rhythm early, but still, they began to fight back with a kill from senior middle blocker DiAeris McRaven and back-to-back aces by senior outside hitter Sotiris Siapanis, pushing the score to 12-9 in their favor.
A CUI service error ended the tightly contested first set by a final score of 25-22 in favor of LBSU. Service errors were a theme of the night as The Beach totaled 18 and the Eagles added 12 of their own.
“We had a couple of times that we scored a point, missed the serve, you know, a couple of communication errors that made it a little cleaner, I mean, a little tighter than it needed to be,” Knipe said. “The guys come off the court and say, ‘Hey, we got to be a little bit better than that.’”
The second set began similarly to the first with Concordia taking the opening point, but Long Beach State quickly responded. The Beach surged ahead with an ace from Siapanis, his third of the night, and a kill from freshman setter Moni Nikolov to grab a 7-3 lead.
“You know, getting on my serve, I missed a couple. Confidence goes down a little bit,” Sophomore opposite hitter Daniil Hershtynovich said. “So just getting that confidence up and just swinging on balls that you know are out of system, and we’re a big team, and we’re supposed to swing away.”
Hershtynovich ended the night with 14 kills, six digs and four blocks.
Although Concordia mounted a 6-1 run late in the set, LBSU closed it out 25-19 after an ace from redshirt junior opposite hitter Skyler Varga.
Varga had a productive night with 10 kills, two digs and two block assists.
In the third set, LBSU looked unstoppable despite a few early missteps. Nikolov continued his stellar serving, adding another ace to his tally of four on the night and led the Beach to a 10-7 advantage.
Senior middle blocker DiAeris McRaven rises up for a spike for LBSU on Jan. 24. He finished the game with two kills and three blocks. Photo credit: Mark Siquig
The crowd, fully engaged, clapped in rhythm with every serve from redshirt junior outside hitter/opposite hitter Connor Bloom who also delivered a crucial ace in the third set.
Long Beach State cruised through the third and final set that ended on a block from Siapanis, sealing a 25-15 set victory and 3-0 sweep.
The Beach’s victory extended their undefeated record to 5-0 and they’ll face No.11 Pepperdine in Malibu on Sunday at 5 p.m. before returning home to host UCLA on February 7 at 7 p.m.
While the location of that game is still uncertain, head coach Alan Knipe remains optimistic about a return to the Walter Pyramid.
“As of right now, all things point to we’re going to be playing the pyramid, so I’m just going to close my eyes and cross my fingers and hope,” Knipe said. “But it is out of our control.”
