By Madison Yang
SAN DIEGO – No.1 Long Beach State men’s volleyball (25-2) kicked off its last conference weekend with a sweep of the No. 10 University of California, San Diego Tritons (17-10) at the LionTree Arena in San Diego on Friday night.
Coming back from a set of games they split with Hawaii last weekend, The Beach were welcomed by a thundering sold-out crowd that was in effect early when wide swings and unsuccessful blocks contributed to an uneven start for LBSU, going down 3-0 to begin the first set.
However, redshirt senior opposite hitter Nato Dickinson’s return to the court allowed The Beach to flip the tide.
After not seeing action in the last four games, Dickinson used his seamless connection with freshman setter Moni Nikolov to re-ignite the LBSU competitive spirit.
Dickinson put up seven of his 16 kills in the first set, and Nikolov tallied 15 of his 38 assists in the set as well.
“[I] felt really comfortable on the court, doing the same thing we do at practice every day,” Dickinson said.
Trailing 23-18, The Beach called a timeout and came back swinging with a quick kill from Dickinson, sparking a momentous shift that led to an 8-0 run to claim the first set.
“For San Diego, there was the full start of the match on the barrage of energy and emotion when it comes to the senior night,” LBSU head coach Alan Knipe said. “We just needed to hang in there and settle down and chip away.”
The second set saw a better start from The Beach that was boosted by redshirt junior opposite hitter Skyler Varga‘s formidable five-point service run, bringing the score from 3-2 to 8-2.
The service line proved to be an advantage for The Beach again when the beloved Bulgarian Prince, Nikolov, stepped up and delivered another ruthless service run to bring The Beach up from 14-7 to 20-7.
“I think the biggest focus for us is just the mental focus. We can’t let up even when we have that big separation, usually gotta put them into the ground and finish it up,” Dickinson said.
LBSU finished the second set cleanly and claimed its largest victory of the night at 25-10.
UCSD brought their focus back in the third set, trading points early until a dunk by Nikolov gave LBSU a 7-5 edge.
Despite service errors on both sides, Nikolov’s synergy with both hitters, Dickinson and freshman opposite hitter Alex Kandev, kept UCSD under pressure.
While the scores stayed taut until the very end of the match, a kill from junior middle blocker Ben Braun, set up perfectly by Nikolov, clinched the 25-22 set victory and the sweep of the Tritons.
LBSU is set for a rematch against UCSD on Saturday, April 18, at the Walter Pyramid, closing out its regular season on home court.
“I think we should come in ready to compete, expect a response, don’t expect them to lay down out of the gate because we beat them here tonight,” Dickinson said. “We gotta expect to be in full swing tomorrow.”
