Match Stats
- #2 Long Beach State def. #10 Loyola 3-0 (25-13, 25-20, 25-19)
- Long Beach State moves to 19-2, Loyola falls to 11-7
- Walter Pyramid, Long Beach, California
- Attendance: 923
- Box Score
#2 Long Beach State swept away #10 Loyola for their 12th-straight victory this season. Loyola finished 1-1 on their west coast swing at the Asics tournament after beating another ranked team, CSUN, on Friday.
The first set was hugely lopsided, with LBSU’s defense stifling Loyola and forcing them to 11 errors and just 5 kills, or a -.231 hitting percentage.
The visitors played better thereafter, but as their offense improved, so did the Beach’s. LBSU hit .448 and .414 in the 2nd and 3rd sets, respectively, for an overall .363 average on the day.
Loyola struggled offensively even on in-system attacks. They hit only .328 on Ian Bowen’s sets, and were only hit him with their first pass 21 times on the day.
Kyle Ensing and TJ DeFalco each had 11 kills for Long Beach State, with DeFalco chipping in 2 aces and 5 block assists to lead all players in scoring.
Loyola had only 1 player hit in double figures – Ben Plaisted with 10 (7 errors, 29 attacks, .103 percentage).
Both teams have big in-conference games coming up. Long Beach State will play CSUN and the top offense in the country next Friday in Northridge. On Thursday, Loyola has the unfortunate task of being Ohio State’s first opponent after their 42-game winning streak was snapped on Saturday.
Videos
Press Releases
Courtesy Long Beach State Athletics:
Long Beach, Calif. – No. 2 Long Beach State came out strong and put away Loyola Chicago Saturday night in straight sets 25-13, 25-20, 25-19. Kyle Ensing and TJ DeFalco both finished with 11 kills as Long Beach State improved to 19-2 on the year, now having won 12 in a row.
Long Beach State was in control early, grabbing an 8-4 lead and forcing a quick timeout from Loyola (11-6) in the first set. After a pair of sideouts, the Beach pushed two more points to take a 12-5 lead. A great block from Amir Lugo-Rodriguez and Andrew Whitt made the score 15-8, and LBSU cruised on for a 25-13 win on a Josh Tuaniga ace. Long Beach State held Loyola to -.231 hitting in the first set, as the Ramblers made 11 attack errors.
Action really cleaned up in the second set, as the 49ers improved their hitting to .448 in the second set, while Loyola hit .226 in the set. Going back and forth early, Long Beach State was able to finally push ahead at 18-16 on a great play. On an excellent dig from Tuaniga, DeFalco set a perfect ball to Whitt who put away the kill. With the momentum on the side of Long Beach State, a Ben Plaisted error put the Beach in front 22-19, and two more Rambler errors closed out the set in a 25-20 win.
In the third, the teams held very close early, until Bryce Yould came up with two kills on service to push the Long Beach State lead to 15-13, and then again to 17-14. Up 19-16, DeFalco took over to pull away for the win with an ace, a back-row kill and then another ace to put LBSU on top by six on the way to a 25-19 victory.
DeFalco was named the ASICS Tournament MVP, while Tuaniga and Ensing were also both named to the six-player All-Tournament Team.
With the win, Long Beach State put themselves in a great position to be ranked No. 1 in the next poll, as No. 1 Ohio State lost in three to UC Irvine on Saturday.
In the first match of the day, George Mason pulled off the upset, winning 3-0 over No. 11 CSUN behind 19 kills from Jack Wilson.
No. 2 Long Beach State will play two matches next week, traveling to No. 11 CSUN for an MPSF match on Friday, March 17, before going old school with a match in the Goldmine against Sacred Heart on Saturday, March 18 at 8 p.m.
2017 ASICS Tournament All-Tournament Team
Jack Wilson, George Mason (Sr., OPP)
Arvis Greene Jr., CSUN (Jr, OPP)
Ben Plaisted, Loyola Chicago (Jr, OPP)
Cole Murray, Loyola Chicago (Sr., OH)
Josh Tuaniga, Long Beach State (So., S)
Kyle Ensing, Long Beach State (So., OPP)
2017 ASICS Tournament Most Valuable Player
TJ DeFalco, Long Beach State (So., OH)
Courtesy Loyola Athletics:
In Short
Ben Plaisted recorded a team-high 10 kills, but No. 10 Loyola University Chicago hit only .026 (24-22-77) as No. 2 Long Beach State (19-2) earned a 25-13, 25-20, 25-19 victory tonight in the LBSU Asics Tournament at Walter Pyramid. With the loss, the Ramblers fall to 11-7 overall.
How It Happened
Five straight Loyola errors allowed Long Beach State to open up a 9-4 lead in the first set and it would roll from there. The Ramblers couldn’t generate anything offensively, hitting -.231 (5-11-26) in the opening set as the 49ers picked up a 25-13 victory.
Two early kills from Plaisted helped Loyola jump out to a 5-3 lead in the second set, but Long Beach would rally to even the score at 7. The teams then engaged in a tightly contested set the rest of the way, with neither leading by more than a point, before the 49ers got back-to-back kills from TJ DeFalco and Andrew Whitt to grab an 18-16 lead. Loyola got within a point, at 20-19, but Long Beach closed out the set on a 5-1 run to collect a 25-20 win.
The third set was also a back-and-forth battle until Long Beach rattled off three unanswered points to turn a one-point advantage into an 18-14 lead. A 49er service error and Will Tischler kill sliced the deficit in half, but a kill from Kyle Ensing opened up a 4-0 Long Beach spurt that gave it a 22-16 lead en route to a 25-19 decision.
Following the match, Plaisted and Cole Murray were named to the Asics All-Tournament Team.
Inside The Box Score
– Plaisted has now recorded 10 or more kills in eight consecutive matches.
– Murray finished with 7 kills and hit .312 (7-2-16)..
– Ensing and DeFalco notched 11 kills apiece to lead Long Beach State.
Up Next
Loyola continues a grueling stretch of matches versus ranked teams when it welcomes No. 1 Ohio State to Gentile Arena on March 16.
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