By While their streak of not dropping a single set in 42 days was snapped, the No. 1 Long Beach State men’s volleyball team (20-0) emerged from this weekend’s doubleheader with a pair of impressive victories over the New Jersey Institute of Technology Highlanders (7-12) on Friday and Saturday at the Walter Pyramid.
Friday, March 21, LBSU 3 – NJIT 1
After racking up 32 kills in his last three outings, LBSU sophomore opposite Daniil Hershtynovich continued his hot stretch of play with 10 kills in the victory on Friday.
“He’s been a rock all season long,” Coach Alan Knipe said. “Moni [Nikolov] has a lot of confidence in him and he’s just starting to show what he’s capable of.”
The Beach raced out to an early 13-6 lead in the first set fueled by stellar blocking from senior middle blocker DiAeris McRaven and freshman setter Nikolov.
The pair combined for nine block assists in The Beach’s opening run, forcing a Highlander timeout.
With the Highlanders showing little resistance throughout the set, a service ace from sophomore opposite Georgi Binev closed it out 25-9 in favor of The Beach.
After only mustering nine points in the entire first, NJIT swung back with a 9-7 opening run in the second, aided by multiple service errors from LBSU.
However, the tide flipped as Nikolov made his way to the service line. The Bulgarian was scorching from the line, racking up five aces in the set, leading a 10-0 run to put LBSU up 21-11.
In addition to dominating from the line, Nikolov racked up 12 of his 35 assists of the night in the set, generating great attack opportunities for The Beach en route to winning the set 25-14.
“When the emotions are flying and adrenaline is going in the big moments, he jumps higher, hits harder and does a really good job causing all sorts of mayhem,” Knipe said.
Seemingly on their way to a 10th consecutive sweep up 18-13, The Beach surprisingly suffered their first set loss in 42 days in the third after surrendering a 12-5 Highlander run.
Redshirt Junior opposite Skyler Varga hits the ball past the NJIT blockers on his way to 10 kills in Friday’s match at the Walter Pyramid. The Beach came out on top of NJIT 3-1 on Friday and followed that win with a sweep on Saturday at the Walter Pyramid. Photo Credit: Justin Enriquez
Freshman opposite Wiktor Nowak led the way for NJIT with six of his 13 kills in the set, breaking LBSU’s impressive streak of sweeps.
“It’s a game of very thin margins, and we gave away too many points, and they also played their best set,” Knipe said.
Tied 7-7 early in the fourth set, The Beach responded resoundingly to their prior set loss with a 13-7 run.
Sophomore outside hitter Sebastiano Sani led the charge with four of his eight kills, and nailed the eventual game point with a kill assisted by Nikolov, clinching the set 25-19.
“I thought we did a good job of creating real sustainable plays to have some energy about, and when that happens it starts to snowball and momentum feels good and everything feels like you got it back,” Knipe said.
Saturday, March 22, LBSU 3 – NJIT 0
After losing their first set in 42 days, LBSU resorted back to their old ways, sweeping NJIT on their way to their 20th victory of the season.
A common theme of the season has been Nikolov leading the way, and he did so again on Saturday with 25 assists, eight kills and five service aces, making it 10 service aces in his last seven sets.
Redshirt junior opposite Skyler Varga was the only Beach player with double-digit kills, 10, but the love was spread around as Hershtynovich contributed nine to go along with Nikolov’s eight.
The defense shined for The Beach as they racked up 12.5 blocks and held the Highlanders to a hitting percentage of .044, while The Beach hit .328.
Standing in the way of 21-0 is No. 5 UC Irvine on Friday, March 28 at 7 p.m. at the Walter Pyramid. Friday’s game is the first of a two-game series with the Anteaters with the reverse fixture taking place on Saturday in Irvine.
Editor’s note: The reporter was not physically present at Saturday night’s game. The story recap was written with aid from the game’s stats.
