No. 3 Long Beach State Routes Long Island in Straight Sets

Friday, January 20

Fairfax, Va.

2:00 p.m.

Long Beach State University

3-0,0-0Big West

Long Island

3-2,0-0NEC

LIU

Long Beach St.

Photo by: Kevin Lassel

1/20/2023 4:02:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

Sotiris Siapanis served up a career-high eight aces, while Mason Briggs recorded his 500th career dig in the sweep

By: Lindy Zamora, Associate Athletic Communications Director

Box Score (PDF)

FAIRFAX, Va. – Everything was working for No. 3 Long Beach State as they opened the East/West Coast Challenge with a convincing sweep of Long Island by scores of 25-14, 25-16, 25-10 on Friday night at The RAC on the campus of George Mason University.

The Beach (3-0) hit .424 in the match with a season-high 13 service aces, while posting 8.0 total team blocks. LBSU kept LIU (3-2) off balance all night as the Sharks were forced into a negative attack percentage (-.046), with just one block and one ace in the contest.

Sophomore outside hitter Sotiris Siapanis was incredible from the service line as he registered a career-high eight aces, a mark that is good for second in LBSU single-match history. In addition to his on-point serving, Siapanis also contributed nine kills, while adding four assists, two digs, and one block assist. He picked nine receptions in the match without committing an error.

Redshirt junior setter Aidan Knipe dished out 20 assists to pace the Long Beach State offense as they hit a solid .424 in the contest. Knipe also added seven digs to go along with a block assist.

Knipe fed redshirt senior outside hitter Spencer Olivier 15 times and the Tustin, Calif., native capitalized as he knocked down 10 kills with just one error for an attack percentage of .600. Olivier, the team's leading scorer, also posted three block assists, two aces, one assist, and one dig.

Another efficient hitter for the Beach was senior Shane Holdaway who finished the match hitting .714 (5-0-7). Holdaway also contributed two digs and a block assist on the night.

The Long Beach State defense was stout as junior libero Mason Briggs led the way with 12 digs on his way to recording 500 in his career. He also picked up his third career kill as his set-point dig in the second set was unable to be handled by the Sharks on the other side of the net.

Adding to the defensive effort were Simon Torwie and Clarke Godbold. Torwie concluded the match with a team-leading six blocks, while Godbold added four. The two combined for 10 kills, while Torwie served up three aces.

The Beach made quick work of the Sharks as LBSU took a quick 6-1 lead to open the match and never looked back. Long Beach State extended their lead to double-digits (20-10) on a block from Holdaway, Knipe, and Siapanis, before rolling to a 25-14 win on a kill from Siapanis.

Long Beach State started the second set off on a 5-0 run, but LIU was quick to counter and even things up at 6-all. After a couple more ties, the Beach used another 5-0 run to go up 13-8 after a kill from Holdaway. With the game moving in their direction, LBSU surged ahead. At set point, Briggs drove for a dig and sent it over the net as the Sharks were unable to push it back over leading to a kill from Briggs and a win for the Beach, 25-16.

The third set was all Long Beach State. After an early 3-0 lead, LBSU went up 9-3 on a kill from Siapanis which forced an LIU timeout. From there, the Beach pushed their advantage up to nine (15-6) after back-to-back aces from Siapanis. Siapanis served up two more consecutive aces to give LBSU a 20-6 lead. With the game out of reach, Olivier put it away with his 10th kill of the match as the Beach earned the sweep 25-10.

Livan Moreno was LIU's leading scorer as he finished with five kills, while Andre Aguilar posted 11 assists, and Danny Seliger added eight digs.

Long Beach State will continue action at the East/West Coast Challenge on Saturday, Jan. 21 when they take on host George Mason at 2 p.m. (PST) / 5 p.m. (EST). The match will be broadcast live via ESPN+.