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When you’re at the top, everyone is going to give you their best shot every time you face them. That was the case Friday night as Long Beach State dropped their first set since February, but the still refocused to defeat NJIT 25-9, 25-13, 23-25, 25-19 at the Walter Pyramid.
The victory pushed LBSU to 19-0 – the best start for the program since 2019 and the last time the Beach won a national title. The third set defeat was their first loss in a set since Feb. 7 against UCLA, breaking a streak of 29 straight set victories.
“We accomplished a lot of things tonight,” said LBSU head coach Alan Knipe. “I thought we played really well in a lot of areas for most of the match and I thought the third set we had way too many errors in almost every area. You’ve got to give them credit, they served well and they played hard. I’m really happy with the way the guys responded to start the fourth set.”
Long Beach State’s size was too much for the Highlanders as the Beach held NJIT to a -.25 hitting percentage as the Beach led wire-to-wire in a dominating first set.
Early in the set, Skyler Varga kept the Highlanders off balance with a couple blocks and some thunderous kills as LBSU jumped to an early lead.
LBSU eventually went on an 8-0 run to take a 1-0 lead.
In the second set, the Highlanders battled to a 11-11 tie but after five lead changes LBSU overpowered NJIT and Varga hammered two kills to give the Beach a 13-11 lead.
Freshman phenom Moni Nikolov continued to show his versatility finishing the night with 35 assists to go with 7 kills and 5 aces.
Along with dishing assists to his teammates, Nikolov was a terror in the second set, attacking from both sides of the net to give the Beach a commanding lead.
With an 18-13 lead, the Beach started to rotate guys in, but NJIT stormed back thanks to Wiktor Nowak who finished with a game-high 13 kills.
Point by point NJIT chipped away at the Beach’s lead before tying the set at 23 and then taking the third set 25-23 to force a fourth set.
Knipe downplayed the significance of his team dropping their first set in over a month.
“This whole thing about win in three win in three, it’s going to happen,” he said. “There’s too many good players and too many good teams in men’s volleyball, you’re not going to go through every match like that.”
The Beach didn’t let up in the fourth set as they outpaced the Highlanders with some highlight worthy kills from Nikolov and Varga to finish off the win.
Varga finished the match with 10 kills while Ben Braun, Varga and Nikolov found themselves in on 7 blocks each.
Daniil Hershtynovich finished with 10 kills along with Varga to lead LBSU.
LBSU and NJIT will be back for another match Saturday for a 7 p.m. start at Walter Pyramid.
