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The Long Beach State men’s volleyball team put up a big block and fought through some tired legs in front of another crowd of 4,000+ in the Walter Pyramid on Saturday night. Midway through the Beach’s eventual five-set win over Hawaii, the PA announced that the Beach’s men’s basketball team had won the Big West Tournament and will advance to the NCAA Tournament. While the men’s basketball team goes dancing, the school’s men’s volleyball team will wake up Monday morning and find itself ranked No. 1 in the nation after a second win over top-ranked Hawaii in as many nights.
The Beach took down the Rainbow Warriors 25-20, 20-25, 25-23, 24-26, 15-13.
“It was a great match, we can get into the stats and talk about that but in reality it was just a very hard-played match by both sides of the net,” said LBSU coach Alan Knipe. “That’s not surprising to me at all, we were prepared for that kind of match.”
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The Beach put up an astounding 20.5 blocks in the match, with middle blocker Simon Torwie accounting for half of them.
“These are the games that we’re going to remember,” said Torwie after the match. “I prefer having to fight for it and showing it.”
Hawaii native DiAeris McRaven got the start at the other middle blocker spot and had a career high eight blocks on what was clearly an emotional night for him.
“It was a lot of fun, it’s really cool with a lot of players I grew up playing against, it’s interesting to see how much better we’ve all gotten, playing against each other now on the big stage,” said McRaven.
The Beach took the first set comfortably while hitting .500, but the Warriors used a late surge in the second set to win it by the same margin, 25-20. Long Beach won a close third set 25-23 but the Warriors were able to fight off match point in the fourth and then win the frame 26-24 to force a fifth set.
Torwie came alive with the score tied at 10, ripping off a block and a kill to put the Beach in the lead for good.
A highlight of the night was the announcement that the men’s basketball team was going dancing.
“I want to give a huge shout out to coach Monson and the men’s basketball team going to the NCAA Tournament,” said Knipe. “Not a lot of things get my attention during a match but that did.”
Torwie echoed his coach’s comments.
“Go Beach, it’s a great day,” he said.
Friday and Saturday’s matches were very different but with the same result, as Long Beach got a sweep Friday and a five-setter tonight. Both matches, however, were played at a very high level with some longtime Beach fans saying they were among the best contests they’ve ever seen in the Pyramid.
“It had that Big West feel to it, one night didn’t feel much like the other,” said Knipe. “Anyone who’s followed the Big West or men’s volleyball over the last ten years knows, this is what happens when these two teams play.”
The Beach hit .279 in the match as Aidan Knipe put up 39 assists. Sotiris Siapanis had 17 kills (along with 11 digs and four blocks), Skyler Varga had 15, and the 20.5 team blocks carried the night.
The Beach are almost certainly going to be ranked No. 1 in the nation Monday when the new AVCA Poll comes out, as they improve to 18-1, and 4-0 in conference. They have the upcoming week off and will face UCSD in a home and home on March 29 and 30.
