No. 1 Long Beach State Sweeps McMaster in Exhibition Contest

Saturday, December 29

Long Beach, Calif.

8:00 PM

Long Beach State University

McMaster

Long Beach State

Photo by: John Fajardo

No. 1 Long Beach State Sweeps McMaster in Exhibition Contest

12/29/2018 11:10:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

The Beach hit .394 as they rolled past the Marauders

By: Lindy Zamora, Associate Athletic Communications Director

Box Score (PDF) | Play-By-Play (PDF)

LONG BEACH, Calif. – The 2019 Long Beach State men's volleyball team took the court Saturday night against McMaster in the North American Challenge exhibition tournament at the Walter Pyramid and the Beach did not disappoint. LBSU dominated the Marauders as the Beach cruised to a 3-0 [25-16, 25-16, 25-14] victory.

Long Beach State earns a 3-0 sweep over McMaster with a 25-14 win in set 3 #GoBeach #LBNation pic.twitter.com/h0ih8QNQ8U
— Long Beach State Men's VB (@lbsumvb) December 30, 2018

The Beach came out swinging as they hit .394 in the contest, while the defense forced the Marauders into a negative attack percentage of -.014.

Long Beach State received a strong offensive showing from seniors Kyle Ensing, TJ DeFalco, and Nick Amado. Ensing led the way with nine kills, while DeFalco and Amado added eight and seven kills, respectively. Ensing's nine kills came on 17 swings with just one attack error for a team-leading .471 attack percentage. The opposite also led the Beach with seven digs and three service aces.

LBSU is on a 5-0 run highlighted by back-to-back kills by Ensing #GoBeach #LBNation pic.twitter.com/DR2YIe8W9z
— Long Beach State Men's VB (@lbsumvb) December 30, 2018

Reigning AVCA National Player of the Year, Josh Tuaniga, picked up right where he left off pacing the Beach offense with 32 assists.

Amado led the Long Beach State defense with four block assists, while senior libero Jordan Molina added five digs in the back row.

Long Beach State was on fire from the endline as the Beach racked up nine service aces. Ensing (3), DeFalco (2) and Tuaniga (2) each tallied multiple service aces in the match.

The Beach wasted no time as they jumped out to an 8-4 lead forcing the Marauders to call a timeout. The break in action did little to deter Long Beach State as it came out of the timeout and extended its lead to six (10-4). LBSU led the rest of the way and cruised to a 25-16 win.

Leading one set to none, the Beach dominated the second set hitting a sizzling .500 (11-0-22) without committing an attack error. With everything clicking, Long Beach State once again rolled to a 25-16 victory to take a 2-0 set lead into the third.

Long Beach State continued to control the match as the Beach hit .375 (11-2-24) in the frame and the Marauders were limited to an attack percentage of -.040 (7-8-25). Firing on all cylinders, LBSU led the majority of the set and would go on to win, 25-14, en route to completing the sweep.

The North American Challenge will continue Sunday with a combined training between Long Beach State and McMaster at noon, followed by exhibition matches with UC Santa Barbara and McMaster at 4 p.m., and Long Beach State and Alberta at 7 p.m. The exhibition tournament will conclude on Monday, Dec. 31 with four matches at 9 a.m., noon, 2 p.m., and 5 p.m. Admission to all matches is free.