The562’s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2023-24 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl.
The Long Beach State men’s volleyball team started a three day stretch of back-to-back games with a win over No. 8 Grand Canyon in the Walter Pyramid, handling the Lopes via sweep, 25-18, 27-25, 25-18.
The Beach will return to the Pyramid on Saturday night for their first of two consecutive matches against Barton.
“This is like a baseball series, we don’t play three (consecutive) games very often and I’m really happy that we have guys that are playing as well as they are in our gym everyday so we’re definitely gonna get to use and flex our depth,” said LBSU coach Alan Knipe. “Getting the first one and getting it out of the way in three, that helps. There’s a whole bunch more jumping and energy expended if we go four or five sets so I’m really proud of the way the guys closed.”
The pair stayed knotted up to open the first set and found themselves tied seven times in just the first half of the set. The Beach found themselves tied up at 13-13 at one point but ended the set on a 12-5 run to comfortably take the opening period.
LBSU kept its foot on the gas in the second set until a late 5-0 run by Grand Canyon to bring the set to a 23-23 tie. They knotted up twice more before the end of the set, where Sotiris Siapanis put an end to the period with a service ace at set point.
“In the second set I thought we got a little complacent at the end of the first, even though I thought Grand Canyon did some good things to score some points,” Knipe said. “They blocked a couple of balls and served well so it’s not like we gave away free points, but I certainly thought we could have had a better attention to detail. But those moments are important to figure those things out and they respined to them.”
The Beach dominated the third set thanks to an improvement in their serving after totaling 15 service errors between the first two sets combined. LBSU had just two service errors in the third set and finished the game with eight aces. Moni Nikolov, Skyler Varga, and Sotiris Siapanis each finished with a pair of aces.
“If anything, I thought we just freed them up even more (in the third set),” said Knipe of LBSU’s serve attack. “We’re a really good serving team and sometimes you try to do a little too much or get a little too tactical. So I tried to make sure I got to each guy and talked to them about freeing up a little bit and being with them.”
Nikolov also had his typical day of production on the court with 38 assists, three blocks, and seven kills on a game-high .667 hitting, and he continued to show his craftiness within his 6-foot-8 frame. The freshman had his usual handful of eye-popping moments on Friday night, and wore the energy on the expression of his face through a dominant showing in front of the 2450 fans in attendance.
“(Nikolov) absolutely loves to compete like great players do on any team and the great players we’ve had here in the past,” Knipe said. “Anything that has to do with winning and losing he’s gonna wanna compete really hard. He’s not the only one there’s a whole bunch of that, but you get to see that. He’s a very extroverted personality so he wears it on his sleeve and you get to see it.”
Skylar Varaga finished the night with a game-high 13 kills for the Beach, meanwhile Daniil Hershtynovich had 11 and Siapanis had nine. DiAeris McRaven had a game-high five blocks and Hershtynovich had four.
For Grand Canyon, Jarrett Anderson had a team-high 11 kills on .435 hitting while Jaxon Herr chipped in all 21 assists.
LBSU will move on to Barton on Saturday night in the Walter Pyramid before hosting them again on Sunday.
