Top-Ranked Beach Win in Straight Sets at Lindenwood

Thursday, January 31

St. Charles, Mo.

5:00 PM

Long Beach State University

8-0

Lindenwood

2-6

Long Beach State

Lindenwood

1/31/2019 10:03:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

Long Beach State hit a season-high .514 in the road sweep to improve to 8-0 on the season

By: Lindy Zamora, Associate Athletic Communications Director

Hear what @lbsumvb associate head coach Nick MacRae has to say about the Beach's 3-0 sweep at Lindenwood #GoBeach #LBNation pic.twitter.com/osywj0J1D8
— Long Beach State Men's VB (@lbsumvb) February 1, 2019

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

ST. CHARLES, Mo. – A strong offensive showing lifted the top-ranked Long Beach State men's volleyball team to a 3-0 [25-19, 25-17, 25-19] victory over Lindenwood on Thursday night at the Lindenwood Invitational.

The Beach (8-0) won their eighth straight match behind a season-high .514 attack percentage. Senior setter Josh Tuaniga ran a balanced offense as he dished out 34 assists on the night. With Tuaniga's efficient passing, seniors TJ DeFalco and Kyle Ensing combined for 24 kills as DeFalco led the way with 13 and Ensing contributed 11 in the sweep of the Lions (2-6).

DeFalco and Ensing were hot offensively as the duo hit over .400 in the match. DeFalco led the way with a whopping .750 hitting percentage as he connected on 13-of-16 attacks, while committing just one attack error. Ensing, meanwhile, hit .421 as he knocked down his 11 kills on 19 swings, which just three errors.

Adding to the offensive output were Louis Richard (7 kills), Nick Amado (5 kills) and Simon Andersen (4 kills).

Tuaniga and DeFalco led on both sides of the ball as the pair also added seven digs each to join senior libero Jordan Molina with the team lead. Additionally, Richard posted five digs on the night.

DeFalco had a solid match all the way around as he put up a pair of solo blocks to tie Andersen for the team lead. As a team, the Beach would finish the match with 4.0 blocks.

The Beach took an early lead to start the match as they used a 4-0 run highlighted by three straight kills from DeFalco, Ensing, and Richard to take a 5-2 lead. That run was all LBSU needed as the Beach led the rest of the way and cruised to a 25-19 victory.

In the second set, after three ties, Long Beach State used another 4-0 run to break the game open. Following the run, the Beach found themselves up 7-4 and held the lead from there. After going up 15-10, Lindenwood utilized a timeout, but the break in action did little to stop the Beach. LBSU forced another timeout by the Lions after leading 21-15, but came out of the stoppage and closed out the set on a 6-2 run to win, 25-17.

Leading two sets to none, the Beach hit an impressive .706 (13-1-17) in the third set as they jumped out in front of the Lions 11-6 on a kill off the hands of DeFalco. Long Beach State once again kept Lindenwood at bay as it pushed its lead up to eight (21-13) forcing the Lions to take a timeout. After that, the Beach put the set and match away on a kill by Ethan Siegfried, who came off the bench and contributed a dig and an ace in addition to the match-winning kill.

Long Beach State continues action at the Lindenwood Invitational on Friday, Feb. 1 as the Beach take on Quincy at 2 p.m. (PT).