No. 7 Long Beach State Comes From Behind to Defeat No. 13 UC Irvine in Five Sets

Saturday, March 27

Irvine, Calif.

4:00 PM

Long Beach State University

3-1,3-1Big West

UC Irvine

2-8,2-4Big West

Long Beach St.

UC Irvine

Photo by: John Fajardo

No. 7 Long Beach State Comes From Behind to Defeat No. 13 UC Irvine in Five Sets

3/27/2021 8:33:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

Career-highs from Olivier, Andersen, Godbold, and Poole lift the Beach to victory

By: Lindy Zamora, Associate Athletic Communications Director

Box Score (PDF)

IRVINE, Calif. – The No. 7 Long Beach State men's volleyball team showed what LBGrit is all about as the Beach came back after dropping the first two sets to No. 13 UC Irvine to win 3-2 [28-30, 21-25, 25-18, 25-19, 15-7] at the Bren Events Center on Saturday evening.

The Beach (3-1 overall, 3-1 Big West) won their third-straight match in come-from-behind fashion as Long Beach State out hit UC Irvine (2-8 overall, 2-4 Big West) .309 to .183. LBSU led the Anteaters in every statistical category as the Beach led in kills (63-54), assists (59-48), aces (7-5), digs (52-46), and blocks (12.0-8.0).

LBSU's depth was on full display in the complete-team victory as 11 players of the 13 who traveled saw action in the match.

"I'm super proud of this team win and what a gritty response it was by our guys," said LBSU head coach Alan Knipe. "We made some changes in the middle of the match and got some fresh legs and got a huge boost of energy and grit from the unit that came in."

The hard-fought effort was evident from the opening set. Even though UCI claimed the first two games, Long Beach State was very competitive. The first set saw the two conference foes battle each other through 17 ties, six lead changes, and six set points, before the Anteaters won, 30-28.

The second set was much like the first as the Beach and Anteaters traded points until they found themselves deadlocked at 17-17. UC Irvine capitalized on three-straight LBSU attack errors to take a 20-17 lead and never looked back as the Anteaters went up two sets to none with a 25-21 win.

With their backs against the wall, Coach Knipe made a lineup change to start the third set and the Beach's rhythm just flowed from there. Long Beach State hit .591 in the frame behind four kills each from Simon Andersen and Ethan Siegfried on 11 assists from Ryan Poole, who made his debut at setter.

"With a very short ramp-up to our season and playing back-to-back high-level matches, we're going to need all of our guys at different points of the season," Knipe explained.

Siegfried sparked a run with a service ace early in the third set and the Beach kept things rolling as they jumped out in front to a 15-9 lead at the media timeout. UCI chipped away and managed to come within three (19-16), but a timeout got the Beach back into their rhythm as they closed out the frame on a 6-2 run to win 25-18.

Riding that wave of momentum, the Beach started the fourth set off with a 2-0 lead following an ace from Grant Marocchi. Marocchi would finish the match with two aces, two blocks, and a kill. Long Beach State dominated from the service line tallying four aces as Poole served up two, while Clarke Godbold added another to go along with Marocchi's. Additionally, LBSU continued its hot-hitting with six kills from Spencer Olivier in the frame. Olivier hit .857 in the fourth set and helped the Beach even the match at two sets apiece with a 25-19 win to force a fifth set.

The Beach defense showed its strength throughout the match but really controlled the final set as LBSU forced UCI into a -.167 attack percentage. In the frame, the Beach posted 4.5 total team blocks with Godbold leading the way with three block assists. With solid play on both sides of the ball, Long Beach State claimed the set and match with a 15-7 win over the host Anteaters.

Olivier led all scorers with a career-high 20 kills on a .382 attack percentage, while adding seven digs, three blocks, one assist, and one ace. Godbold tied his season-high with 13 kills, while Andersen turned in a season-best 12 kills, which was just one off of his career-best, while hitting a team-leading .667 as he did not commit an attack error in the match.

In addition to his solid offensive performance, Andersen set a new career-high for himself at the net with eight blocks. Godbold, meanwhile, added a season-best six blocks.

Splitting setter duties on the night were redshirt freshman Aidan Knipe and Poole, a senior from Enfield, England. Knipe finished the match with 26 assists, while Poole concluded the contest with a career-best 24 as the pair paced the Beach to a .309 attack percentage.

In the backrow, freshman libero Mason Briggs collected 14 digs to tie his season-high, while adding six assists. With Briggs leading the defense, Long Beach State held UC Irvine to just .183 hitting in the match.

UCI had three players in double figures as Joel Schneidmiller led the way with 16 kills, while Doug Dahm and Scott Stadick each added 14. Dylan Zhai was one dig shy of a double-double as he finished the match with 42 assists and nine digs. Cole Gillis logged 13 digs, while Connor Campbell posted seven blocks on defense.

Tonight's contest kicks off a four-match road swing for the Beach, as Long Beach State will travel to Honolulu, Hawai'i to take on the top-ranked Rainbow Warriors on Friday, April 2 and Saturday, April 3 at the Stan Sheriff Center. Both matches will begin at 10 p.m. (Pacific Time) and will be live streamed on BigWest.TV.