The562’s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2024-25 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl.
The Long Beach State men’s volleyball team is in Hawaii for the Big West Tournament this weekend, and they’ll open against UC San Diego tonight in the semifinals. The pair will face off in the Stan Sheriff Center at 7:30 pst.
“We’re going to push as far as we can and see how good we can get at playing the best brand of volleyball,” said LBSU head coach Alan Knipe last weekend of the postseason. “That’s a commitment we have to ourselves and a commitment we have to our fans.”
The matchup comes just a week after the team’s regular season series, where The Beach earned a pair of sweeps to close out their season. LBSU has won its last six matches against the Tritons, and haven’t dropped a set to them since 2022.
UC San Diego finds themselves in the semifinals after a five-set win over UC Santa Barbara on Thursday afternoon. Josh Schellinger led the Tritons with 22 kills and Bryce Dvorak had 56 assists. Jim Garrison and Peter Selcho each had eight blocks.
The Beach enter the tournament after posting a 26–2 regular season record, having been unanimously ranked No. 1 in the nation since January.
LBSU has been battling a few injuries throughout the season, most notably to outside Sotiris Siapanis and recently to opposite Daniil Hershtynovich. However, Knipe is hopeful that his team will be as close to full strength as they’ve been all season.
“We felt really good about the guys that we put on the court this weekend but hopefully we get both (Siapanis and Hershtynovich) back for the tournament,” said Knipe. “That would be great. The way it’s tracking right now, I’m pretty confident we’ll be as close to full-strength as we’ve been all year.”
The winner will advance to the Big West championship game on Saturday night against the winner of the UC Irvine and Hawaii match, which will follow Long Beach State and UC San Diego’s matchup at 10:00 pst.
