MATCH STATS
- No. 1 Long Beach State def. No. 5 Loyola 3-0 (25-15, 25-17, 25-21)
- Long Beach State moves to 6-0; Loyola falls to 2-2
- Chicago
- Attendance: 1,002
- Box Score
CHICAGO – Eight aces and a .456 hitting effort lifted No. 1 Long Beach State to an easy road sweep of Loyola-Chicago on Saturday night.
The 49ers bested the Ramblers .456 to .253 in hitting percentage, 8-1 in aces and 7-3 in blocks. Loyola posted one more kill (38-37).
LBSU hit .545 in the opening set, with just one error, and followed with two more efforts over .400 en route to victory.
Junior opposite Kyle Ensing downed 12 kills and hit at an errorless .632 clip (12-0-19). Senior middle Nick Amado (9) and junior outside TJ DeFalco (7) followed. DeFalco also served up four of the team’s eight aces. Senior outside Bjarne Huus paced the 49ers with four blocks.
Junior outside Collin Mahan accounted for a match-high 13 kills and hit at a .545 clip (13-1-22), but it was not enough to lift the Ramblers to victory. Three other players added six or more kills – senior outside Ryan Jamison (8), senior middle Jeff Jendryk (7) and junior middle Paul Narup (6), but that could not make up for the team’s 16 hitting errors or lack of a block.
Long Beach State ran away with the opening set, cruising to an 11-4 lead as Loyola made five errors. The Ramblers narrowed the gap to four at 12-8, but the 49ers responded with six of the next seven, including two kills and a block by Amado, to make it 18-9. Kills by DeFalco and Huus pushed the margin to 10 at 24-14 and a service error capped the stanza.
LBSU scored five straight to turn a 3-all tie into an 8-3 advantage in Set 2. Ensing notched three kills in the run and added a fourth to make it 9-4 49ers. Two Long Beach service errors and an ace by Dane Leclair had the Ramblers within two at 10-8, but from there on it was nearly all 49ers. An 11-4 run, capped by four straight points, put LBSU up 21-12. Loyola did not go quietly, scoring five of the next seven. Jendryk posted a kill and a block in the rally, but an Ensing kill and Josh Tuaniga ace sealed the 25-17 win.
Loyola outhit LBSU .464 to .417 in the final set, but couldn’t pull out the win to extend the match. Long Beach took an early 6-2 lead as Amado and Ensing each downed two kills and Tuaniga and DeFalco served up aces. That margin was enough to hold the Ramblers at bay, despite seeing the team close within one three times, last at 13-12. Three players notched kills and three Loyola miscues aided the Long Beach cause as the team took a 20-15 lead. Mahan and Jamison brought Loyola within two at 21-19 with two kills each, but a stuff by Huus, Engins and Simon Anderson put Long Beach on the hill at 24-19. An Anderson putaway gave the 49ers the 25-21 win and the match.
MATCH RECAPS
Courtesy: Loyola Athletics
No. 2 Long Beach State (6-0) hit a whopping .456 (37-6-68) to hand No. 7 Loyola University Chicago (2-2) a 25-15, 25-17, 25-21 loss tonight at Gentile Arena. Junior Collin Mahan led all players with 13 kills to spearhead Loyola’s offense, which hit .256 (38-16-87) on the evening.
How It Happened
Long Beach State sprinted out to an 11-4 lead in the opening set and never looked back en route to a 25-15 victory, hitting a blistering .545 (13-1-22) to start the match.
Once again in set two, the 49ers grabbed hold of an early lead, going on top 8-3 before Loyola mounted a rally. Kills from Dane Leclair and Will Tischler bookended a 4-1 Loyola run that closed the gap to 9-7, but Long Beach State produced three of the next four tallies to bump its lead to 12-8. Later, a kill from Mahan closed the gap to 13-10, but the 49ers put the set out of reach with an 8-2 run that gave them a 21-12 edge.
Loyola dug itself a four-point hole (8-4) in the third set before putting together an impressive run of play to make things interesting. Mahan started the Rambler rally with a kill and added two more stops in an 8-5 surge to bring Loyola within a single point at 13-12. Long Beach answered with consecutive points, the second coming on a Kyle Ensing ace, however, and it would slowly build its advantage back to five (20-15) on its way to a 25-21 decision.
A Look At The Numbers
- Mahan has totaled double-digit kills in eight of his last nine matches dating back to last season, including each of the first four of the 2018 campaign. He finished tonight with a .545 (13-1-22) hitting percentage.
- Jeff Jendryk hit .600 (7-1-10), while Ryan Jamison pitched in eight kills and six digs, to complement Mahan.
- Ensing led Long Beach State with 12 kills, while Nick Amado added nine.
Up Next
The Ramblers continue their nine-match homestand next weekend when they take on Grand View (Jan. 19) and Saint Francis (Jan. 20) at Gentile Arena.
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