No. 1 Long Beach State Wins 15th Straight Match with Sweep at No. 11 CSUN

Saturday, March 2

Northridge, Calif.

7:00 PM

Long Beach State University

15-0, 2-0Big West

CSUN

8-8, 0-2Big West

Long Beach State

CSUN

No. 1 Long Beach State Wins 15th Straight Match with Sweep at No. 11 CSUN

3/2/2019 10:45:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

The Beach hit .525 in the contest and posted 12.5 total blocks en route to victory

By: Lindy Zamora, Associate Athletic Communications Director

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

NORTHRIDGE, Calif. – The top-ranked Beach picked up a three-set sweep over No. 11 CSUN on Saturday night at the Matadome as Long Beach State won by scores of 25-11, 25-20, 25-18.

LBSU (15-0, 2-0 Big West) played well on both sides of the ball hitting .525 in the match, while putting up 12.5 total team blocks. Both the squad's attack percentage and team blocks were new season-highs for the Beach this year.

Set 3 | ROOF! A triple block by @lbsumvb highlights a 4-1 run by the Beach as LBSU leads 16-13 forcing a CSUN timeout #GoBeach pic.twitter.com/jmbEll86Tc
— Long Beach State Men's VB (@lbsumvb) March 3, 2019

The Long Beach State defense kept CSUN (8-8, 0-2 Big West) off balance as the Matadors were held to a .167 attack percentage on the night.

Senior opposite Kyle Ensing led the offensive attack as he posted a team-best 12 kills while hitting .500 (12-3-18). Senior middle blocker Nick Amado finished with a career-high .889 attack percentage as he knocked down eight kills on nine swings without an attack error.

Additionally, Ensing and Amado also led the Beach defense as Amado tied his career-best with nine blocks at the net, while Ensing set a new career-high with eight blocks.

Jordan Molina set the tone in the back row for the Beach with a team-best seven digs in the match.

Senior setter Josh Tuaniga once again paced the LBSU offense as he distributed 31 assists, while adding two kills of his own. TJ DeFalco would finish the match with eight kills on .462 hitting, while Louis Richard would contribute six kills with a .364 clip.

In addition to his eight kills, DeFalco served up three aces to bring his career total to 155. He is now just four aces shy of becoming Long Beach State's all-time service aces leader.

Long Beach State hit the court hot as the Beach hit a sizzling .824 in the first set as they slammed 14 kills on 17 attempts without committing an error. The .824 clip is the second highest attack percentage in a single-set in program history and the highest output for the Beach since 2011.

With the offense on fire, Long Beach State breezed through the first set, never trailing, and owning a perfect 100-percent (12-for-12) sideout percentage en route to winning 25-11.
CSUN turned in its best performance of the night in the second set as the Matadors hit .320 (13-5-25), but Long Beach State was still firing on all cylinders and posted a .476 attack percentage (13-3-21). The two teams fought through four ties, but Long Beach State emerged victorious, 25-20.

The third set began close as LBSU and CSUN exchanged points early on. However, the Beach rattled off three-straight points to take a 16-13 lead as the Matadors called a timeout. The break in action didn't stop the Beach as they pushed their lead up to four (18-14) as CSUN burned its final timeout. From there, Long Beach State led by as many as seven on several occasions before closing out the set and match on a kill by Amado to win, 25-18.

BEACH WIN!!! @lbsumvb takes set 3, 25-18, over CSUN to complete the sweep (25-11, 25-20, 25-18) #GoBeach #LBNation pic.twitter.com/YW349Nt63Q
— Long Beach State Men's VB (@lbsumvb) March 3, 2019

Long Beach State will take a break from Big West Conference action as the Beach host No. 8 Stanford in a non-conference match up on Friday, March 8 at 7 p.m.