By Madison Yang
After a devastating loss on its home court last weekend, No.1 Long Beach State’s men’s volleyball (23-1) returned to the Walter Pyramid and bounced back with a sweep over No. 16 UC Santa Barbara (11-12) on Friday night.
Coming off a 3-1 win on Thursday night at UCSB’s home court, the Thunderdome, The Beach resorted back to their sweeping ways on Friday night.
“[The players] were very intentful with their approach to the match,” LBSU head coach Alan Knipe said. “Learning how to do something the second night, the second time– and I’m not just talking about a win, I’m talking about reproducing the effort, the attention to detail, the physicality… the intent was very good.”
The game began with both teams trading points until sophomore opposite hitter Daniil Hershtynovich pulled LBSU up to 10-7 with four kills, which had UCSB yelling out warnings to watch his movement before every serve.
Hershtynovich stayed on top of his game until the end of the set, continuing his speed and calculated precision on his way to seven total kills in the first.
Though the scores stayed tight in the first half, LBSU opened up its advantage towards the middle of the set, pulling away from UCSB and finishing the set off with a four-point run as freshman outside hitter Alex Kandev aced the Gauchos and sealed the first set 25-14.
The second set saw a tighter match, with mistakes from both sides keeping the other in the match; service errors from UCSB and wide hits from LBSU kept the score relatively close.
Sophomore opposite hitter Daniil Hershtynovich had a tied team-high 11 kills to go along with six digs and one assist. LBSU took down UC Santa Barbara 3-0 at the Walter Pyramid on Friday, April 4. Photo credit: Samuel Chacko
However, senior middle blocker DiAeris McRaven did not hit any wide and thundered down two impressive kills.
Though the Gauchos tightened up their game in the second set at 19-19, harmonious block assists from junior middle blocker Ben Braun and Kandev pulled The Beach ahead.
“We out-dug them by a pretty good number, and out-blocked them, and that gave us a lot of opportunities to score real points, and that’s where the separation came from,” Knipe said.
Braun smashed the set-winning point giving LBSU the second set win at 25-20.
The Beach continued with their stellar performance in the third set with a noticeable shift in freshman setter Moni Nikolov’s play.
While Nikolov’s kill numbers didn’t stand out in the first two sets, he transitioned into more aggressive offensive plays while The Beach were up by a minimal margin of 12-9 points.
As Nikolov pulled his infamous fake set move, fans in the Pyramid burst into cheers for the Bulgarian prodigy. Nikolov’s momentum didn’t end there as he ended the set with three kills and pulled The Beach up 13-9.
“That’s just the way I play volleyball,” Nikolov said. “I got to give credit to the people that make me able to be aggressive– you know, the people that pass the ball and place the ball where we train every day.”
With the score at 24-17, fans were on their feet, anticipating a clean sweep and got their wish as McRaven delivered a merciless kill assisted by Nikolov, clinching the sweep and the second consecutive victory over UCSB.
The Beach improved to 23-1 after two victories over the Gauchos and now travel out of state for a highly anticipated doubleheader against No. 5 University of Hawai’i on Friday, April 11 and Saturday, April 12.
