Match Stats
- #2 Long Beach State def. UCSD 3-0 (28-26, 25-19, 25-11)
- LBSU moves to 17-2 (13-1 MPSF); UCSD falls to 5-13 (2-11 MPSF)
- Walter Pyramid, Long Beach, California
- Attendance: 746
- Match Stats
Long Beach State’s senior libero Andrew Sato recorded 10 digs in his team’s 3-0 win on Friday evening, which made him the school’s all-time leader in the category over his career.
Sato now has 893 digs, breaking the previous record of 886 that was set in 1993 by Zack Small. He also extended his lead atop the list of the most double digit dig outputs with his 49th such game last night.
LBSU, the only team in the MPSF that has clinched a spot in the conference tournament, has now won 10 straight games this season. The latest win came while hitting .476 and holding UCSD to just .146 of the same, with no UCSD players in double digit kills on the day.
The first set was very close and competitive, with LBSU eking out a 28-26 win. After that, however, the Tritons’ offense went on hiatus, and they hit just .-017 over the last two combined.
LBSU was led offensively by Kyle Ensing (14 kills, .480 hitting) and TJ DeFalco (15 kills, .667 hitting). Now ranking in the top 10 nationally in both kills/set and hitting percentage for the 2nd-ranked team in the country, DeFalco is building a strong All-American resume.
UCSD’s Shayne Beamer combined 6 kills with 3 aces and 2 blocks for 10 points in total on the day.
With that loss, UCSD slides further back in the race for the 8 spots in the conference tournament. They now rank 11th out of 12 teams in the MPSF, and with just 6 games left in their conference schedule, they’re running out of time to make up the gap on the likes of Pepperdine and CSUN.
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Press Releases
Courtesy LBSU Athletics:
LONG BEACH – Senior libero Andrew Sato set a new Long Beach State men’s volleyball program record with 893 career digs after pacing the backrow Friday night with 10 digs as he led the Beach to a 3-0 [28-26, 25-19, 25-11] sweep of UC San Diego at the Walter Pyramid.
With the win, the second-ranked Long Beach State men’s volleyball team improved to 17-2 overall and 13-1 in MPSF action, while the Tritons dropped to 2-11 on the year and 5-13 in the conference. The Beach have now extended their winning streak to 10 matches and have won 13 straight MPSF contests.
Sato’s 893 career digs break a previous program record of 886 digs which was set in 1993 by Zack Small. Sato has had a solid career at the Beach as he also holds the school record for most double-digit dig performances with 49 after notching 10 digs in tonight’s contest.
In addition to Sato’s performance, Long Beach State also received solid defensive efforts from TJ DeFalco and Andrew Whitt who added nine and seven digs, respectively. At the net, the Beach were led by Bryce Yould’s blocking defense that posted a season-high seven blocks in the match.
As the defense held UC San Diego to a .146 attack percentage, the LBSU offense powered passed the Tritons as DeFalco and Kyle Ensing led the team with 15 and 14 kills, respectively. DeFalco narrowly missed a double-double as he was just one dig shy of the feat. The duo also combined for nine blocks as Ensing recorded five, while DeFalco added four.
The Beach hit .476 in the contest as DeFalco led the team with a .667 (15-1-21) hitting percentage. Long Beach State received a strong offensive performance thanks in part to Josh Tuaniga dishing out 36 assists to set the tone as four of the Beach starters hit .500 or higher on the night.
Long Beach State and UC San Diego battled each other through the first set as the two teams fought through a dozen ties in the game. Both teams hit well with the Tritons hitting .424 and the Beach hitting .483. The conference foes took the tie game all the way until the end as it was knotted 26-26 until the Beach managed to win the game, 28-26, on a kill by Ensing.
The second set saw the Beach and Tritons exchange leads early on in the frame, but Long Beach State would break a 12-12 tie on a kill by Yould that would spark a 6-2 run which would put the Beach up for the remainder of the game. From there, LBSU held a steady lead and earned a 25-19 set win to take a 2-0 lead over UCSD.
The Beach used the momentum from the second set to dominate the third as they hit .556 (12-2-18) in the frame and forced the Tritons into a negative attack percentage (-.067). Long Beach State led throughout the entire set and cruised to a 25-11 win to complete the sweep.
Long Beach State will be back in action next week when it hosts the Asics Tournament on March 10 and 11 at the Walter Pyramid. Non-LBSU matches begin at 5 p.m. on both days, while Long Beach State will play in the nightcap at 7 p.m.
Courtesy UCSD Athletics:
LONG BEACH, Calif. – The University of California San Diego men’s volleyball team was swept by No. 2 Long Beach State in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) match inside the Walter Pyramid on Friday night. Scores were 28-26, 25-19 and 25-11.
UC San Diego fell to 5-13 overall and 2-11 in the MPSF with an eighth straight defeat after a five-match win streak. Conference leader Long Beach State won a 10th consecutive contest, having dropped a mere two sets along the way. The 49ers, now 17-2 overall and 13-1 in league play, swept the season series with the Tritons as 3-0 winners in La Jolla as well back on Feb. 11. They remained perfect at home at 8-0.
UCSD narrowly dropped an agonizing opening frame that featured 12 tie scores and a pair of lead changes. Both teams hit better than .400. The Tritons led 4-2 early after a three-point run punctuated by a Shayne Beamer ace, and 15-12 later on Devin Pontigon’s kill when the Beach used the first timeout of the night. The score was knotted at 16-16, 17-17, 18-18, 19-19 and 20-20 before LBSU finally wrestled away its first lead since 2-1, at 21-20. UCSD called its last timeout, and pulled even again at 21-21 on a 49er ball handling error.
Long Beach State tallied the next two for a 23-21 edge, but the Tritons wouldn’t go away, leveling matters at 23-23 on a Pontigon kill. UCSD saved a trio of set points on two Tanner Syftestad kills around another Pontigon kill. Finally on the fourth set point, Kyle Ensing put down the decisive kill for the home side.
Pontigon, a true freshman outside hitter out of Oceanside (El Camino HS), hit .750 (6-0-8) in game one without an attack error.
Game two was also close, with seven tie scores and six lead changes. A 49er service error and Beamer ace gave the Tritons the slimmest of edges at 12-11, but the next five points went to the Beach around UCSD’s first timeout, for 16-12. The visitors could not get closer than three points for the remainder. Another 3-0 mini-run put the 49ers firmly in command at 23-17, and shortly thereafter, at 2-0 in sets.
The third stanza was no contest in favor of Long Beach State, which scored the first two, and then went on a remarkable 11-0 run in completing the three-set triumph.
Syftestad held at least a share of the team high in kills for a 14th match in a row, with eight. Pontigon finished with seven. Fellow true freshman Ryan Lew collected 10 digs to share the match high with the MPSF’s digs leader, senior libero counterpart Andrew Sato.
Junior setter Milosh Stojcic wound up with 26 assists, two digs, two blocks and a kill. Beamer provided six kills on .308 (6-2-13) hitting, two block assists, and a career-high-tying three service aces to lead all players.
UCSD was out-blocked, 11.5-3.0, and hit just .146 (29-16-89).
TJ DeFalco put down a match-high 15 kills and Ensing had 14. A third sophomore star for the 49ers, setter Josh Tuaniga, had 36 assists, three kills, and the lone solo block by either team on the night.
“We got off to a good start tonight,” said UCSD head coach Kevin Ring. “We hit .424 in the first set and a lot of that was attributed to some very good passing in serve receive. I thought Milosh (Stojcic) did a nice job distributing the ball. We were very competitive in that first set. Our undoing was eight service errors in set one alone. That proved costly in a game that was 28-26. That could have been the difference.
“(In set two,) I thought we continued to pass really well, but our offense tailed off. We struggled to get kills from the pins. Our middles continued to work for us and do a couple of good things. Then in the third set, we broke down in serve receive and thus our offense dropped off even more. It was not the direction we wanted to go from set one to two to three. (Long Beach State was) on top of their game throughout the entire match.”
It doesn’t get any easier for the Tritons. They conclude a season-long four-match road stretch next weekend, traveling to Columbus, Ohio. Coming off of tonight’s matchup with No. 2 Long Beach State, UCSD first faces defending national champion Ohio State, the No. 1 team in the land, on Friday, March 10. The Buckeyes are an undefeated 18-0 and winners of 41 successive contests. First serve at St. John Arena, site of the 2017 NCAA Championship, is set for 4 p.m. PT. The Tritons will then also play No. 11 Ball State in a neutral-site affair in Columbus on Saturday, March 11.
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