Long Beach State University
11-0,0-0Big West
Vanguard
2-4,0-0MPSF
No. 1 Long Beach State Remains Undefeated With Sweep Of Vanguard
2/14/2025 10:29:00 PM | Men's Volleyball
The Beach sweep the Lions at home in the first meeting between the teams.
LONG BEACH, Calif. - Long Beach State continued their impressive run of wins to start the season with a victory over Vanguard 25-15, 25-11, 25-22. The team hit .462 and grabbed 12 blocks in a dominant win over the Lions.
Sebastiano Sani led the way for the Beach with 10 kills and a service ace. Moni Nikolov also hit four service aces and added seven kills of his own along with 25 assists.
Long Beach State (11-0) went on a 3-0 run to start the set. The lead over Vanguard (2-4) widened to 8-3 with a service ace from Sebastiano Sani. The momentum remained with Long Beach State as Nikolov grabbed back-to-back kills. Sotiris Siapanis hit an ace to boost the score to 15-6. Vanguard answered back with an ace from Brock Henderson to bring the score to 19-13. An ace by Hershtynovich brought the Beach to set point and an error by Vanguard gave the Beach the first set 25-15.
Vanguard was able to put up points early in the set but a kill by Nikolov gave the Beach back their edge. Ben Braun's first kill of the night brought the Beach to 5-3. Long Beach State then went on a 10-1 scoring run to put them up 16-5. During the run, four different players grabbed their first kills of the night and Nikolov hit his first ace of the night. Another run allowed the Beach to take the set 25-11 on their way to the 3-0 victory.
The third set was a battle as the Beach was down for the first time in the match. A double block from Isaiah Preuitt and Daniil Hershtynovich tied the score at 6-6. It remained a close set as Vanguard took back their lead at 11-9. Alex Kandev came into the match and immediately grabbed two kills to bring the score to another tie at 12-12. Both teams traded service aces before Long Beach State regained the lead. Moni Nikolov grabbed an ace out of the timeout to get the Beach back to a two point lead at 16-14. Vanguard went on a 3-0 run of their own to bring the score within one at 22-21. Long Beach State scored back-to-back points to reassert control, and closed out the match 25-22 with a kill from Nikolov.
Long Beach State is back in action on Friday, February 21, hosting Grand Canyon at 7 p.m. in the Walter Pyramid.
