By In front of the largest crowd in Long Beach State men’s volleyball history, No. 1 LBSU’s undefeated start to the season came to a screeching halt Friday night at the Walter Pyramid, with No. 5 UC Irvine pulling off a stunning sweep to shock the whole arena.
The Beach entered Friday’s match boasting a 60-5 set record and an undefeated 20-0 start.
The Anteaters’ road victory was their first at the Pyramid since 2015.
“You have to give Irvine a ton of credit,” head coach Alan Knipe said. “They put some service pressure on us. I thought the first set we had every opportunity to win that set, and we kind of aired ourselves out of it. I would’ve liked to see a better response by us, and our guys know that.”
With “The Sandpit” student section filled half an hour before the first serve, the Pyramid was alive and loud as ever for this top-five matchup.
The LBSU student section were loud and on their feet, with a total of 4,676 people filling up the arena. UCI, however, overcame the LBSU crowd and upset The Beach 3-0 at the Walter Pyramid. Photo credit: Samuel Chacko
Freshman setter Moni Nikolov brought the energy in the arena to new heights, beginning the match with back-to-back aces. That energy came crashing down when Nikolov dove into the front row of cameras and was visibly shaken up.
Though he opted to remain in the match, it’s unclear how much it affected him. Nikolov still put up his usual numbers, tallying a game-high 32 assists, four kills and three aces, but LBSU was never able to sustain any momentum offensively.
Long Beach State freshman setter Moni Nikolov goes for one of his five digs in the game. The Beach ended up losing 3-0 against UCI at the Walter Pyramid. Photo credit: Samuel Chacko
The Beach’s attack from the service line was unlike anything they have shown this season. The 22 service errors proved costly, preventing them from closing out the first set and mounting comebacks in the next two.
“We got out dug and we came close tonight to giving them an entire set with service errors and that’s a tough recipe to expect to win,” Knipe said.
Midway through the first set, UCI went on a 6-1 run to take the lead, 19-16. LBSU knotted things at 20-20 with sophomore outside hitter Sebastiano Sani getting a kill by tapping a ball into no-man’s land.
The teams traded points the rest of the way, with the Nikolov and redshirt junior opposite hitter Skyler Varga connection on full display. The first set featured eight ties before UCI was able to take the set by a score of 27-25.
Redshirt junior opposite hitter Skyler Varga goes up for a kill against two UCI defenders at the Walter Pyramid on March 28. Varga scored a team-high 13 kills as The Beach lost their 20 game win streak to UCI with the final score of 3-0. Photo credit: Samuel Chacko
Given how dominant The Beach has been this season, a counter to the early set loss was expected. As the match progressed, the home crowd was left waiting for the Beach to make a run against the amped-up Anteaters team, who built off their set one victory.
“I definitely felt some tightness in our team when we dropped the first set,” Nikolov said.
An 8-1 UCI run during the second set sucked the energy from the building, as the wheels started to come off for a team that’s dealt with little adversity this year.
LBSU was never able to get the deficit below three in the set and lost set two, 25-19.
“We were timid. I think it’s a great learning experience, there’s a lot of first-year guys that haven’t really been in that experience of dropping a set in a huge environment against a good team,” Varga said.
The Anteaters kept their foot on the gas, opening the third and final set 4-0, leading to a timeout from The Beach.
UCI added to their advantage, leading by as much as nine midway through the set. Short bursts of points from LBSU wasn’t enough as UCI took the third set by a score of 25-19.
The Beach will not have to wait for a rematch, as they head to Irvine Saturday night. This match carries playoff implications as only two teams from the Big West can make the NCAA Tournament.
“This is not a postseason match in a one-and-done tournament, you get a chance to respond,” Knipe said. “That’s what the conference season is about. It’s about growing.”
