Long Beach State University Athletics
Long Beach State University
24-6
Pepperdine
13-11
Beach Rolls Past Waves in MPSF Tournament Quarterfinals
4/16/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
LONG BEACH - The fourth-ranked and third-seeded Long Beach State men's volleyball team earned its 13th sweep of the season as it defeated No. 7 and sixth-seeded Pepperdine, 25-22, 25-22, 25-22, in an MPSF Tournament quarterfinal match Saturday evening at the Walter Pyramid.
The Beach (24-6) will advance to the semifinals for the 11th time in program history and will face second-seeded UCLA in Provo, Utah, on Thursday, April 21.
Freshmen TJ DeFalco and Kyle Ensing tied for the team lead with 13 kills each. Ensing hit .345 and had six digs, while DeFalco added five blocks and five digs. Senior Dan Glamack provided a late spark as six of his nine kills came in the third set where he hit .750 (6-0-8). He hit a season-best .533 for the match.
Junior Amir Lugo-Rodriguez tied his season high with seven blocks, and junior Andrew Sato finished with a team-best seven digs.
LBSU hit .292 on the evening and held a slight 11.5-to-10.0 edge in total team blocks. The 49ers also had five aces to six service errors.
Long Beach State found itself in an early hole in the first set as Pepperdine took a 14-10 lead. The Beach answered with three-straight points but the Waves stayed out front and went back on top by four at 20-16. LBSU regrouped and came storming back with a 5-0 run to pull ahead, 21-20, its first lead since holding a 2-1 edge. The 49ers continued their strong play with a Lugo-Rodriguez/Ensing block ending it at 25-22.
The Beach carried its momentum into set two where it raced out to a 9-2 advantage. Pepperdine then made a run, closing the gap to 10-8, but back-to-back aces from Ensing, and a kill by Glamack, increased Long Beach State's cushion to 14-8. The Waves wouldn't go down quietly as they used a late rally to make it 20-19. A couple of kills from Glamack then bookended a 5-3 spurt that gave LBSU the 25-22 win.
It was a close game from start to finish in the third frame with the 49ers holding the largest lead at three points. Long Beach State broke an 8-8 deadlock with a 4-1 run to pull ahead, 12-9. Pepperdine came back to knot the score at 12-12, and three more ties would follow before a solo block by Lugo-Rodriguez put the Beach up, 18-16. LBSU continued to side out and Glamack's sixth kill of the set gave the home team the 25-22 victory.
Pepperdine (13-11) hit .214 as a team and was paced by David Wieczorek, who had a match-high 16 kills with a .452 clip.
Long Beach State moves on to the MPSF Tournament semifinals where it will face third-ranked and second-seeded UCLA in Provo, Utah, at 4 p.m. (PDT) on Thursday, April 21.
NOTES: Long Beach State advances to the MPSF semifinals for the 11th time in program history and first since 2013 ... The Beach went 3-0 against Pepperdine in 2016, with two sweeps at the Walter Pyramid ... Junior Andrew Sato passed 49er all-time great Brett Winslow for the seventh spot in the school record books with 707 career digs ... Freshman TJ DeFalco reached double figures in kills for the 27th time in 29 matches played ... He ranks second behind only Brent Hilliard in the LBSU freshman record books with 462 kills ... Freshman Kyle Ensing also notched his fifth-straight double-digit kill match.
