Balanced Offense Leads No. 2 Beach to Road Sweep Over UC San Diego

Saturday, April 6

La Jolla, Calif.

7:00 PM

Long Beach State University

23-1, 8-0Big West

UC San Diego

7-17, 0-8Big West

Long Beach State

UC San Diego

Photo by: John Fajardo

Balanced Offense Leads No. 2 Beach to Road Sweep Over UC San Diego

4/6/2019 10:02:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

Long Beach State hits .541 in the victory

By: Lindy Zamora, Associate Athletic Communications Director

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

SAN DIEGO – No. 2 Long Beach State turned in another strong offensive effort as the Beach picked up a three-set sweep over UC San Diego on Saturday night winning by set scores of 25-18, 25-15, 27-25.

The straight set win improves the Beach's record to 23-1 on the year and a perfect 8-0 in Big West action. Meanwhile, the Tritons fall to 7-17 overall and 0-8 in league play.

LBSU was on fire offensively all night as the Beach never hit below .500 in a set en route to posting a .541 clip in the match as they connected 51 kills on 85 swings while committing just five attack errors. Leading the offensive charge was the senior core of Josh Tuaniga, TJ DeFalco and Kyle Ensing.

Tuaniga piloted the Beach to a balanced offensive showing as he dished out 39 assists while adding three kills of his own. DeFalco and Ensing both turned in double-figure efforts as DeFalco led all scorers with 16 kills and Ensing added 15.

DeFalco hit .538 in the match (16-2-26), while Ensing registered a .520 attack percentage (15-2-25). While the duo was impressive offensively, so were middle blockers Simon Andersen and Nick Amado. Anderson led the squad with a sizzling .750 hitting percentage (6-0-8), while Amado turned in a .556 clip (5-0-9). Neither committed in attack error in the contest.

With the offense clicking, the Beach defense kept the Tritons off balance most of the night, limiting the hosts to a .038 attack percentage in the second set. Ensing led the Beach with seven digs, while senior libero added six digs, and DeFalco contributed five. Amado recorded three block assists at the net, while the team finished with 3.0 total blocks.

The Beach opened the match with a 25-18 win in the first set as they hit .583 in the frame. LBSU had 15 kills in the game and had just one miscue, while owning a sideout percentage of 83%. The first set saw the Beach and Tritons exchange leads early, but Long Beach State used a solid serving effort from Louis Richard that led to three straight Beach points to put LBSU up 11-9. The Beach would hold the lead the rest of the way before cruising to an eight-point win.

Long Beach State dominated the second set as the Beach defense forced the Tritons into a disappointing .038 attack percentage. While UC San Diego struggled to find its groove, the Beach flourished hitting .500 and winning by a margin of 10 (25-15).

The third set was the most competitive as UC San Diego's offense clicked and hit .481 (14-1-27) in the frame. The Tritons' offensive surge led to 19 ties in the set and eight lead changes. However, Long Beach State knocked down 22 kills in the game as the Beach hit .541. The Beach sent it to match point, 24-23, but the Tritons battled back. LBSU pushed it to match point three times before Ensing finished it off on an ace as the Beach won 27-25.

BEACH WIN!!! @lbsumvb sweeps UC San Diego, 3-0 [25-18, 25-15, 27-25] as the Beach win set 3 on an ace by Kyle Ensing #GoBeach #LBNation pic.twitter.com/XU20hL1uku
— Long Beach State Men's VB (@lbsumvb) April 7, 2019

UC San Diego's Wyatt Harrison led the Tritons with 11 kills, while Logan Clark and Vlad Pesic hit .538 and .545, respectively.

Long Beach State will be back in action next week when it closes out the regular season against No. 1 Hawaii at the Walter Pyramid on Friday, April 12 and Saturday, April 13. Both matches are set for 7 p.m.