Long Beach State Opens the Big West Tournament Against UC Irvine in the Quarterfinals

Thursday, April 22

Manoa, Hawaii

7:30 PM

Long Beach State University

UC Irvine

Photo by: John Fajardo

Long Beach State Opens the Big West Tournament Against UC Irvine in the Quarterfinals

4/21/2021 2:04:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

The Beach and the Anteaters will go head-to-head on Thursday, April 22 at 7:30 p.m.

By: Lindy Zamora, Associate Athletic Communications Director

MATCH #11: (6) UC Irvine vs. (3) Long Beach State
Date: Thursday, April 22
Time: 4:30 p.m. (HT) / 7:30 p.m. (PT)
Location: Honolulu, Hawai'i
Venue: Stan Sheriff Center
Live Stats: StatBroadcast.com
Live Stream: BigWest.TV
TV: Spectrum Sports

COMPLETE LBSU MATCH NOTES (PDF)

Long Beach State Opens the Big West Tournament Against UC Irvine in the Quarterfinals
No. 7 Long Beach State is the No. 3 seed in the Big West Conference Tournament and will face No. 6 seed UC Irvine in the quarterfinals on Thursday, April 22 at 4:30 p.m. (HT)/7:30 p.m. (PT). The winner of the contest will take on No. 2 seed UC Santa Barbara in the semifinals on Friday, April 23 at 4:30 p.m. (HT)/7:30 p.m. (PT).

Catch All The Action
The Big West Conference Tournament will be broadcast live via Spectrum Sports in Hawaii. It will also be live streamed via BigWest.TV. Live stats via StatBroadcast.com will also be available.

Staying Social
Follow Long Beach State Men's Volleyball on Instagram and Twitter at @LBSUMVB. Be sure to "like" us on Facebook (Long Beach State Men's Volleyball).

Fans can stay up-to-date on all things Long Beach State by following @LBSUAthletics. Be sure to "like" us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram at @LBSU.

And don't forget our hashtags #GoBeach #LBNation.

In the Rankings
Long Beach State enters the Big West Tournament ranked No. 7 in the NVA/AVCA Division I-II Coaches Poll. UC Irvine is not ranked, although the Anteaters are receiving votes.

About The Beach
• Long Beach State is a No. 3 seed in the Big West Conference Tournament after finishing the regular season with a 6-4 overall record and an identical 6-4 conference mark.
• The Beach closed out the regular season winning three of their last four matches. All three of those wins were straight-set victories, while the loss was a close five-set setback.
• Overall, Long Beach State owns a 21-22 record in conference tournaments dating back to 1993. The Beach are 3-1 when playing in the Big West Conference Tournament.
• The Beach went 4-0 at the Walter Pyramid this season to extend their home conference winning streak to 23 matches which ranks second in the Long Beach State record book.
• Senior middle blocker Simon Andersen is coming off of a career-weekend in which he posted a career-high 13 blocks against CSUN. That performance marked the second time this season he recorded double-digit blocks. His solid performance on both sides of the ball (.400 attack percentage, 13 kills, 1.88 blocks per set) earned him Big West Defensive Player of the Week honors.
• On the season, Andersen leads the Beach with 1.45 blocks per set which leads the Big West and ranks him second in the nation. His .409 hitting percentage also is tops on the team, while ranking fourth in the conference, and 13th in the nation.
• Another Big West Conference leader is freshman Mason Briggs who owns an digs per set average of 2.50 as he comes in seventh in the nation.
• With Andersen and Briggs leading the defensive efforts, Long Beach State leads the Big West in opponent hitting percentage (.229) and blocks per set (2.81), while coming in second in digs per set (9.10) and service aces (1.40).
• In addition to being a solid defensive team, the Beach are also ranked in the top three in the Big West in all offensive categories as they average 12.83 kills per set on a .279 attack percentage, while averaging 11.83 assists per set.
• Leading the offensive charge for LBSU is Spencer Olivier who leads the Beach with 3.83 kills per set to rank third in the Big West and 14th in the country.
• Senior setter/outside hitter Ryan Poole showed his versatility this season making his debut at setter in the third set at UC Irvine (3/27). Poole went on to earn the start at Hawaii in both matches and is averaging 6.39 assists per set.
• Freshman setter Aidan Knipe got off to a hot start as he was named Big West Freshman of the Week following his collegiate debut in which he logged 57 assists and led the Beach to a .345 clip in a 3-1 victory against No. 3 UCSB. However, an injury has hampered the Beach setter as he has been platooning with Poole. Knipe is averaging 7.46 assists per set.
• Ethan Siegfried has earned the start in LBSU's last four matches and has done an excellent job recording a season-high 19 kills at Hawaii and serving up a career-best five aces against UC San Diego. Siegfried leads the Beach with 15 aces on the season to average 0.39 per set which ranks him third in the Big West.

Scouting UC Irvine
• UC Irvine comes into the Big West Tournament as the No. 6 seed with a 2-13 overall record and a 2-8 conference ledger.
• The Anteaters are looking to snap an eight-match losing streak which dates back to March 20 when they defeated CSUN in four sets.
• UCI's two wins this season have come against UC San Diego, 3-2 (3/11) and CSUN, 3-1 (3/20).
• The Eaters are 0-8 when playing on the road this season as they take on the Beach in Honolulu, Hawaii, a neutral site contest.
• Joel Schneidmiller leads the Eaters with 3.73 kills per set on a .312 attack percentage. The 6-foot-6 outside hitter has contributed on both sides of the ball this season as he also adds 1.37 digs per set, 0.49 blocks per set, and leads the team with 20 aces.
• Dylan Zhai is the team's primary setter has he has dished out 8.20 assists per set leading the Eaters to a .253 attack percentage on the year. Zhai is fourth on the squad with 1.25 digs per set.
• Defensively, UC Irvine is led by Akhil Tangutu who averages 1.50 digs per set in the back row.
• At the net, Scott Stadick's 0.90 blocks per set tops the team as he has posted a total of 47 blocks (6 solo blocks, 47 block assists) on the year.
• As a team, UC Irvine averages 11.71 kills per set on 10.93 assists per set.
• The Eaters also average 1.82 blocks per set and 7.85 digs per set to go along with 0.92 aces per set.

The Series: The Beach vs. The Anteaters
Long Beach State and UC Irvine will meet for the 85th time in program history. The Beach lead the all-time series 50-34 and have won the last 11 meetings against the Anteaters. UCI, meanwhile, is looking for their first win over LBSU since April 3, 2015 when the Anteaters defeated the Beach in four in Irvine, Calif. When playing each other at a neutral site, the Beach hold a 5-3 record.

All-Big West Honors
The Big West Conference announced the 2021 Men's Volleyball All-Conference and All-Freshman Teams on Monday afternoon, and Long Beach State had five players selected. Simon Andersen and Spencer Olivier garnered First Team All-Big West accolades, while Mason Briggs earned Honorable Mention status. Clarke Godbold and Simon Torwie were named to the All-Freshman Team.

In addition, Long Beach State also had four different players garner Big West Weekly honors as Spencer Olivier was named Player of the Week on March 29, while Simon Andersen garnered Defensive Player of the Week accolades on two separate occasions. Aidan Knipe claimed Freshman of the Week honors on March 22, while Clarke Godbold took home three-straight Freshman of the Week awards.

Hitting The Spot
Junior middle blocker Simon Andersen is leading the Beach with a .409 attack percentage this season. The product out of Middlefart, Denmark has knocked down 60 kills on 137 swings, while committing just 13 attack errors. His hitting percentage ranks him fourth in the conference and 13th in the nation.

Can You Dig It?
Freshman libero Mason Briggs has done an excellent job pacing the Long Beach State defense this season. The Valencia, Calif., native has racked up a total of 100 digs to average 2.50 digs per set which leads the Big West Conference and ranks him seventh in the nation. Briggs has logged four double-digit dig performances this season and has led LBSU in digs in 8-of-10 matches.

Block Party
Senior middle blocker Simon Andersen has been a force at the net thus far. Last weekend at CSUN, he put up a career-best 13 blocks to lead the Beach. His double-figure blocking effort was the second such performance of the season. On the year, Andersen has accumulated a team-leading 58 blocks (6 solo blocks, 52 block assists) to average 1.45 blocks per set. That output leads the Big West and ranks second in the country.

Aces Wild
Senior outside hitter Ethan Siegfried has seen action in every match this season and has started in six. At UC San Diego, Siegfried had a career-night from the service line as he notched a career-best five aces to lead the Beach to a sweep of the Tritons. Siegfried now leads the Beach with 15 aces on the year to average 0.39 aces per set to rank him third in the Big West. Additionally, the Honolulu, Hawaii native averages 2.08 kills per set, 1.11 digs per set, 0.34 blocks per set, and is hitting .260 on the year.

Setting the Bar
Freshman setter Aidan Knipe started the season as the Beach's setter and after his first two weekends on the job, was leading the nation in assists per set, had a Big West Freshman of the Week honor under his belt, and had distributed a career-high 57 assists. However, Knipe suffered an injury and was sidelined mid-way through the match at UC Irvine. Enter Ryan Poole. Poole is a 6-foot-5 outside hitter from Enfield, England who stepped up and filled the setter role in Knipe's absence. With Poole setting for the first time in his career, he has shown his versatility and talent dishing out a career-best 55 assists and leading LBSU to a .307 attack percentage in a five-set loss to No. 1 Hawai'i. So far this season, Knipe is averaging 7.46 assists per set, while Poole is averaging 6.39 assists per set to rank sixth and seventh, respectively, in the conference.

Quality Coaches
Long Beach State is led by three-time AVCA National Coach of the Year, Alan Knipe, who has led the Beach to all three of its NCAA National Titles. With Knipe at the helm over the last 18 years, the Beach have an impressive winning percentage of nearly 70 percent (.694).

A four-time conference coach of the year who has coached six National Players of the Year, 1 AVCA Newcomer of the Year, 55 All-America selections, and more than 70 all-conference selections, Knipe is certainly among the best at the Beach.

However, he also surrounds himself with some of the top coaches in the country in associate head coach Nick MacRae, assistant coach McKay Smith, and volunteer assistant coach Jon Parry.

In May 2020, Smith was awarded the AVCA Thirty Under 30 Award. The award, which was created in 2009, honors up-and-coming coaching talent at all levels of the sport. Smith returned to his alma mater in 2017 as a volunteer assistant coach and made an immediate impact, helping the Beach capture the 2018 and 2019 NCAA National Championships. Following the program's third title, Smith was elevated to assistant coach and, in that capacity, led the Beach to a 10-1 record during the 2020 season.

In addition, over the summer, MacRae was named the head coach of the 2020 Boys Youth National Training Team, while Parry was selected as the team's statistician. The duo will work with some of the top talent in the country as the team is comprised of eight players from the Southern California region, three from Northern California, three from the Great Lakes, and two each from Florida, Arizona, and Ohio Valley, as well as one each from the Lone Star and Iowa.

Up Next
Should Long Beach State defeat UC Irvine in the Big West Conference Quarterfinals, the Beach will then advance to the semifinals and face No. 2 seed UC Santa Barbara on Friday, April 23 at 4:30 p.m. (HT) / 7:30 p.m .(PT).