No. 2 Beach Men’s Volleyball Earns Four-Set Win Against No. 17 George Mason

Friday, January 19

Newark, N.J.

1:30 p.m.

Long Beach State University

4-0,0-0Big West

George Mason

2-3,0-0EIVA

Long Beach St.

George Mason

Aidan Knipe, Simon Torwie, Clarke Godbold

Photo by: John Fajardo

No. 2 Beach Men’s Volleyball Earns Four-Set Win Against No. 17 George Mason

1/19/2024 4:33:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score LBSU-GMU Box Score

As a team, Long Beach State hit .324 and put up 14.0 total team blocks in the 3-1 win over George Mason at the NJIT Tournament

By: Lindy Zamora, Associate Athletic Communications Director

NEWARK, N.J. – The No. 2 Long Beach State Men's Volleyball team came into the NJIT Tournament and faced No. 17 George Mason on Friday and downed the Patriots, 3-1 [25-14, 22-25, 25-21, 25-20] as the Beach cruised to their fourth-straight victory.

The Beach (4-0) hit .324 in the contest and put up 14.0 total team blocks, while the Patriots (2-3) held the advantage in digs (33-25).

Senior setter Aidan Knipe ran a hot offense that hit an impressive .706 (10-0-17) in the opening set as the Huntington Beach, Calif., native finished the match with 39 assists, while adding five digs, four blocks, and an ace.

Knipe distributed the ball well as senior outside hitter Clarke Godbold knocked down 18 kills on a .567 attack percentage (18-1-30), while junior outside hitter Sotiris Siapanis added 10 kills on a .280 (10-3-25) clip.

At the net, senior middle blocker Simon Torwie was unstoppable as he posted seven blocks to lead the team. Torwie contributed offensively as well, tallying seven kills on a .333 attack percentage (7-3-12).

Joining Torwie with solid blocking defense were opposite Skyler Varga and middle blocker Lazar Bouchkov who each posted five blocks.

Senior libero Mason Briggs collected eight digs to pace the backrow, while also contributing two assists.

The Beach dominated the first set as they hit over .700 in the frame and boasted a 93% sideout percentage. Godbold broke an early 2-2 tie and Long Beach State rolled to an 8-4 lead forcing the Patriots to call a timeout. From there, the Beach continued to control the set taking an 18-12 lead after a kill from Siapanis as Mason utilized its final timeout of the set. Nathan Harlan came in as a serving sub and sent it to set point (24-14) on an ace, before Godbold secured the 25-14 win with a kill.

The Patriots settled in in the second set as George Mason out-hit Long Beach .375 to .318. The back-and-forth affair saw 14 ties and four lead changes, before GMU broke a 20-20 tie to go up for good. The Patriots edged the Beach, 25-22, to even the match at one set apiece.

Long Beach State and George Mason continued to battle each other back-and-forth in the third set. After 11 ties, the Beach called a timeout to regroup. The Patriots' attack error out of the break gave LBSU a 22-21 lead and the Beach rolled from there closing the set on a 4-0 run capped by a block from Torwie and Knipe to give LBSU a 25-21 win.

In the fourth set with the game knotted at 7-all, Godbold gave the Beach an 8-7 lead with one swing. That kill would jump start Long Beach State as it took a five-point (18-13) advantage after a kill from Bouchkov that prompted a George Mason timeout. Following the break, the Patriots managed to close the gap (20-18) as Long Beach called for time. That was all the Beach needed as they came back out and surged ahead to win, 25-20, on a kill from Siapanis.

George Mason boasted three double-figure scorers in Liam French (11 kills), Jack Bolz (11 kills), and Omar Hoyos (10 kills). Setters Troy McDonald (25 assists) and Georgi Zahariev (14 assists) paced the Patriots to a .206 hitting percentage. Defensively, Bolz logged eight digs to lead the team, while Sam Peters put up four blocks at the net.

Long Beach State will continue action at the NJIT Tournament on Saturday, Jan. 20 at 4 p.m. (PT)/7 p.m. (ET) when the Beach take on the host Highlanders. The match will be broadcast live on ESPN+.