Team

Top-Seed LBSU Advances to Big West Conference Championship Match with Win Over No. 4 Seed UCSB

4/20/2019 2:26:00 AM | Men's Volleyball

The Beach hit .404 in the match en route to winning their seventh straight contest

By: Lindy Zamora, Associate Athletic Communications Director




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

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HONOLULU – The top-seeded Long Beach State men's volleyball team advanced to the Big West Championship match with a 3-1 [25-19, 21-25, 25-18, 25-17] victory over No. 4 seed UC Santa Barbara in the semifinals on Friday evening at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Long Beach State (26-1) will play No. 2 seed Hawaii on Saturday, April 20 at 8 p.m. (HT) / 11 p.m. (PT).

The Beach out-hit the Gauchos (18-10) .404 to .238 and led in almost all statistical categories as LBSU held the edge in kills (55-43), assists (47-42), aces (7-4), and total team blocks (10.0-4.5).

Senior Kyle Ensing led the team with 18 kills as he hit .515 in the contest, while adding six digs, one block, and one ace. Joining Ensing in double figures was TJ DeFalco who contributed 11 kills to go along with five digs, five assists, four blocks, and three aces.

Also contributing to LBSU's solid offensive effort were middle blockers Simon Andersen and Nick Amado. Andersen hit .750 as he knocked down nine kills on 12 errorless swings, while posting four blocks. Amado, meanwhile, collected eight kills in 15 attempts without an error to hit .533. He also recorded four blocks in the match.

Ensing, DeFalco, Andersen, and Amado all received solid passes from Josh Tuaniga who finished the match with 41 assists, while adding four kills of his own.

The Beach defense was led by senior libero Jordan Molina's eight digs, while sophomore outside hitter Ethan Siegfried added seven digs.

The match started out close as the Beach and Gauchos traded points early on and found themselves deadlocked 15-15. Long Beach State's timeout call proved effective as the Beach came out of the break and took a two-point lead after a triple block from Tuaniga, DeFalco, and Amado, followed by a kill off the hands of DeFalco. UCSB utilized a timeout, but the Gauchos were unable to stop the Beach as LBSU took the first set, 25-19.

UC Santa Barbara regrouped in the second set and out-hit Long Beach State .280 to .179. The Beach offense committed six attack errors and fell behind after the Gauchos rattled off four straight points to take a 20-16 lead. From there UCSB held the lead and won the second set, 25-21, to even the match at one set apiece.

Long Beach State showed its resiliency as it came back in the third set and hit .545 as the team collected 12 kills on 22 attempts without an error. With the Beach offense back on track, the defense limited the Gauchos to an attack percentage of .179 and rolled to a 25-18 victory.

Leading two sets to one, Long Beach State continued to surge ahead as the Beach hit .571 in the fourth set and boasted a sideout percentage of 88%. LBSU used a 3-0 run to go up for good (6-3) early in the fourth and final game. From there, the Beach held the lead the rest of the way and put the set and match away on a kill by Andersen as Long Beach State earned a 25-17 victory.

 
UC Santa Barbara's Corey Chavers (13 kills) and Brandon Hopper (10 kills) led the way, while Randy DeWeese and Spencer Fredrick each contributed seven digs.
 
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Players Mentioned

25

Nick Amado

MB
/ Men's Volleyball
13

Simon Andersen

MB
/ Men's Volleyball
11

TJ DeFalco

OH
/ Men's Volleyball
5

Kyle Ensing

OPP
/ Men's Volleyball
9

Jordan Molina

L
/ Men's Volleyball
19

Ethan Siegfried

OH
/ Men's Volleyball
10

Josh Tuaniga

S
/ Men's Volleyball

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