Long Beach State University
18-0,2-0Big West
Princeton
6-9,1-1EIVA
Skylar Varga Leads No. 1 Men’s Volleyball In Sweep Of No. 19 Princeton
3/15/2025 10:07:00 PM | Men's Volleyball
The junior led Long Beach State in kills, digs and aces as the Beach swept the Tigers.
LONG BEACH, Calif. -- No. 1 Long Beach State had another impressive night at home as they swept No. 19 Princeton 25-19, 25-22, 25-19. Long Beach State finished 9.5 blocks and 18 digs while hitting .333 on the way to the win.
Long Beach State (18-0) was led by Varga, who had 11 kills on .476 hitting while making four of the team's eight aces on the night and a team-high five digs, while making three blocks. Nato Dickenson led the team with seven blocks, part of 9.5 in total for the Beach as LBSU held No. 19 Princeton (6-9) to .162 hitting on the night.
The match started close, but Sebastiano Sani gave the Beach a two point lead at 5-3. Princeton was able to pull within one and tie the score early with a block from Ethan Wells and Mason Rice at 9-9. The Beach grabbed a kill off the block to put them up 13-10. The first ace of the night from Moni Nikolov put the Beach up two more points at 15-10. Dickinson and Sani grabbed a block to widen the lead to four at 17-13. Nikolov grabbed a kill at 20-14 to keep the momentum going but the Tigers called a timeout to try and limit the run. Nikolov served an ace to hit set point and one to close the set 25-19.
A kill from Nikolov and a service ace from Varga right after put Long Beach State up 6-3 in the early portion of set two. Princeton was able to cut the lead to three, but a kill and an ace from Nikolov put the Beach on a 4-0 scoring run to reach 19-13. Princeton had their best set of the night, chipping way at the lead and pulling within one at 22-21, but two kills from Varga helped Long Beach State finished off a 25-22 set two win.
Princeton started the third set up 7-4, but a solo block from Nikolov quickly helped the Beach cut the lead back to one at 7-6. A kill from DiAeris McRaven tied the score at 8-8 and the Beach pushed to a 15-11 lead behind two kills from Dickinson. From there, the Beach held that four-point cushion until a big block from Dickinson and Daniil Hershtynovich pushed the lead to six at 23-17 and LBSU closed their 18th straight win and 9th consecutive sweep with a 25-19 victory.
Long Beach State will continue play in the Walter Pyramid for their next three matches, starting by hosting NJIT on March 21 and 22 and 7 p.m.
