Long Beach State University
10-0,0-0Big West
UCLA
6-3,0-0MPSF
No. 1 Long Beach State Sweeps No. 3 UCLA
2/12/2025 9:43:00 PM | Men's Volleyball
Long Beach State swept the Bruins in Pauley Pavilion for the first time since 2019.
LONG BEACH, Calif.-- No. 1 Long Beach State remained undefeated (10-0) as the Beach swept No. 3 UCLA (25-23, 25-19, 25-23) Wednesday night at Pauley Pavilion.
The Beach hit .442 as Daniil Hershtynovich led the way with 11 kills. Skyler Varga followed with nine, and Moni Nikolov and Sotiris Siapanis posted seven kills. Nikolov was strong at the net with three blocks. DiAeris McRaven and Lazar Bouchkov both grabbed two blocks.
The match started back and forth as both teams looked to gain an edge. As the set continued, Long Beach State maintained a two-point lead at 12-10. UCLA was able to steal the lead back at 18-15 as they grabbed kills of their own. Long Beach State went on its first of many scoring runs to jump to a 19-18 lead. A double block from Hershtynovich and Bouchkov caused UCLA to take a timeout. Hershtynovich grabbed a kill out of the timeout to reach 20-19. Another 3-0 scoring run led the Beach to match point at 24-22. A mishit gave Long Beach State a 1-0 lead in the match and the momentum.
Long Beach State opened the second set by taking a 7-2 lead thanks to all players producing on offense. Lazar Bouchkov hit the first service ace of the night to put the Beach up 15-11. Bouchkov posted back-to-back aces to send the Beach on their third 3-0 scoring run of the set. Long Beach State reached a 24-18 set point before clinching the set on a DiAeris McRaven. After posting seven aces against UCLA (6-3) last Friday night, Moni Nikolov, the Division I leader in aces per set, recorded his first of the match to get the third set going for the Beach. UCLA answered back with what proved to be their only ace of the night from Cooper Robinson. The momentum favored the Bruins as Robinson hit back-to-back kills to give UCLA a 10-7 lead.
Long Beach State was down 15-12 at the media timeout but regained energy from a Nikolov kill to help them tie the set at 18-18. Another three-point run would give the Beach a 21-19 lead as Hershtynovich could not be stopped. A service error gave the Beach match point at 24-22. A statement kill from Siapanis sealed the sweep for Long Beach State.
Thursday night marked the first time since Jan. 19, 2019, that Long Beach State swept the Bruins in Los Angeles, and it was the first time since Feb. 11, 2022, that LBSU swept UCLA.
The Beach will return on Friday night when Long Beach State hosts Vanguard (2-3) at 7 p.m.
