Top-Ranked Beach Roll Past Mount Olive in Straight Sets

Thursday, January 10

Mount Olive, N.C.

4:00 PM

Long Beach State University

4-0

Mount Olive

0-1

Long Beach State

Mount Olive

1/10/2019 6:39:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

TJ DeFalco leads all scorers with 12 kills, while hitting .545

By: Lindy Zamora, Associate Athletic Communications Director

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

MOUNT OLIVE, N.C. – No. 1 Long Beach State men's volleyball has won its fourth straight match as the Beach defeated Mount Olive, 3-0 [25-14, 25-15, 25-17] on Thursday night.

The Beach (4-0) had another solid outing against the Trojans (0-1) as they played well on both sides of the ball. Long Beach State hit .397 in the match and saw its defense hold Mount Olive to just .095 hitting. The Beach did not allow the Trojans to score more than 17 points in a single set.

Piloting the Long Beach State offense was senior setter Josh Tuaniga who tallied 27 assists. Senior outside hitter capitalized on Tuaniga's solid passing as he finished the match with 12 kills on 22 swings without committing an attack error for an impressive .545 clip. Sophomore middle blocker Simon Andersen helped lead the Beach offense as he connected for seven kills on 11 attacks for a .636 attack percentage.

While the offense fired away, everything seemed to click for the defense as well. The Beach were led by senior libero Jordan Molina in the back row as Molina collected nine digs. Tuaniga added six digs of his own.

At the net, senior middle blocker Nick Amado put up four block assists, while Andersen totaled three (two block assists and one solo block). Long Beach State would finish with 7.0 total team blocks.

The Beach hit .542 in the opening frame and led throughout. The Trojans managed to even the score at 5-5, but were never able to take the lead. Long Beach State pushed its lead up to six (13-7) forcing UMO to call a timeout. The Beach went on a run and led by nine (21-12) as the Trojans called for another break. Following the final break in action, LBSU cruised to a 25-14 win on back-to-back kills from Kyle Ensing and DeFalco.

Mount Olive started the second set off with a kill, but Long Beach State was quick to counter rattling off three straight points, highlighted by a DeFalco ace. That run gave LBSU a lead it would not relinquish as the Beach would take a 10-5 lead on an ace off the hands of Louis Richard forcing UMO to take a timeout. Long Beach State came out of the break and pushed its lead up to eight (21-13) before winning, 25-15, on another DeFalco kill.

Ensing gave Long Beach State a 1-0 lead to start the third set as he knocked down a kill, but the Trojans took a 2-1 lead on back-to-back points. The two team traded leads early on, but the Beach went up for good after a 4-1 run gave the visitors a 10-7 edge. The Beach hit .381 in the set and claimed the game, 25-17, to complete the sweep.

Long Beach State will travel to Wilson, N.C., for a match up against Barton College on Friday, Jan. 11. First serve is set for 4 p.m. (PT).