Top-Ranked Beach Open Big West Conference Action with Sweep of No. 11 CSUN

Friday, March 1

Long Beach, Calif.

7:00 PM

Long Beach State University

14-0 (1-0Big West)

CSUN

8-7 (0-1Big West)

CSUN

Long Beach State

Photo by: Joseph Kling

Top-Ranked Beach Open Big West Conference Action with Sweep of No. 11 CSUN

3/1/2019 10:23:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

Kyle Ensing tallied 12 kills on .478 hitting in the victory

By: Lindy Zamora, Associate Athletic Communications Director

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

Photo Gallery

LONG BEACH, Calif. – No. 1 Long Beach State opened up Big West Conference play Friday night in a big way – with a 3-0 [25-14, 25-17, 28-26] sweep of No. 11 CSUN and on the newly installed Taraflex floor inside the Walter Pyramid.

The Beach (14-0, 1-0 Big West) christened the new floor as they hit .493 (39-5-69) behind 12 kills from Kyle Ensing, and seven kills apiece from TJ DeFalco and Nick Amado. Josh Tuaniga set the offensive tone for Long Beach State dishing out 30 assists on the night, while adding a couple kills of his own.

Senior outside hitter Louis Richard set a new career-best at the end line as he served up three aces in the match to go along with six kills, four digs, and three assists in a solid all-around performance.

On the defensive end, Long Beach State posted 9.5 total team blocks as the Beach were led by DeFalco's season-high six blocks (one solo block, five block assists). Also contributing to the team's stout effort at the net were Simon Andersen and Amado who each added four block assists.

Amado and Andersen also aided the Beach on the offensive end as Amado hit a career-high .875 as he knocked down seven kills on eight swings without committing an error. Andersen was just as impressive as he slammed five kills in seven attempts without an error for an attack percentage of .714.

The solid play on both sides of the ball lead Long Beach State to a dominating 25-14 victory over CSUN (8-7, 0-1 Big West) in the first set. In the opening frame, the Beach hit .562 (10-1-16) and forced the Matadors into as many attack errors as they had kills for a .000 attack percentage (7-7-19).

The Beach rolled passed the Matadors in the second set as well, out-hitting the visitors .560 to .231. Long Beach State's commanding performance translated to a 25-17 win as LBSU took a 2-0 set lead into the third set.
CSUN fought back in the third game as the conference foes traded points early in the frame and found themselves deadlocked at 13-all. The Beach would rattle off three-straight points capped by a block by Tuaniga and Andersen forcing the Matadors to call a timeout (16-13) before pushing their lead to five (20-15) which resulted in another CSUN break.

Following the stoppage in action, CSUN used back-to-back aces from Ryan DeWeese and capitalized on an LBSU attack error to cut the Beach's lead to two (22-20) as Long Beach State called for a timeout. The Matadors chipped away at LBSU's lead and eventually tied the game at 23-23. From there, the two teams battled through three ties and four match points before Long Beach State ended the set and match on back-to-back kills from DeFalco and Amado, winning 28-26.

The conference foes will face off once again on Saturday, March 2 at 7 p.m. at the Matadome in Northridge, Calif.