No. 4 Beach Falls in Straight Sets to Alberta at CanAm Holiday Showcase

Monday, December 30

Toronto, Ontario

4:00 PM

Long Beach State University

Alberta

Photo by: Mason Boroff

No. 4 Beach Falls in Straight Sets to Alberta at CanAm Holiday Showcase

12/30/2019 6:12:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Simon Andersen is named Player of the Game is the setback

By: Lindy Zamora, Associate Athletic Communications Director

TORONTO – The No. 4 Long Beach State men's volleyball team came out on Day 3 of the CanAm Volleyball Holiday Showcase and dropped a close 3-0 [25-23, 25-21, 27-25] decision to Alberta on Monday evening in an exhibition contest.

The two teams battled each other throughout and kept it close during all three sets, but the Golden Bears managed to pull out the win.

Long Beach State was led offensively by Ethan Siegfried (8 kills), Simon Andersen (7 kills), Shane Holdaway (7 kills), and Spencer Olivier (7 kills). Andersen also contributed three blocks and an ace as he was named Player of the Game.
Carlos Rivera got the start as setter, while Mason Briggs led the back row at libero.

The first set saw Alberta squeak out a 25-23 lead after the Beach and Golden Bears traded points several times in the back-and-forth affair.

The Beach took a 7-4 lead over the Golden Bears in the second set, and extended that lead to five (10-5) on a kill by Holdaway as Alberta called a timeout. The break in action gave the Golden Bears time to regroup as they came back to even the score at 13-all. An ace from Siegfried got the Beach going as LBSU took a 19-16 lead, but Alberta battled back once more to knot the game at 20-20. Following a timeout by Long Beach State, Alberta closed out the set on a 5-1 run to win, 25-21.

Down two sets to none, Long Beach State kept the third set close early on but Alberta opened up a five-point lead (11-6) as the Beach began to fall behind. In typical Long Beach State fashion, the gritty Beach used a 4-0 run highlighted by a kill off the hands of Marc Moody to even the score at 16-16 on a solid serving run by Ryan Poole.

After Alberta took a 22-20 advantage, Long Beach State utilized a timeout and came out of the break to knock down back-to-back points. The Beach pushed it to set point (24-23), but Alberta turned the tables as the Golden Bears sent the game to match point (25-24). Long Beach would not go away quietly as the Beach fought back to even things up, 25-25. However, the Golden Bears would knock down the next two points to win, 27-25, and complete the sweep.

Long Beach State will be back in action on the final day of the CanAm Volleyball Holiday Showcase on Tuesday, Dec. 31 at 8:30 a.m. (PT) when the Beach take on McMaster.