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In front of a sellout crowd at the Walter Pyramid (the first since a whole pandemic ago), the Long Beach State men’s volleyball team lost a tight match with UCLA in four sets. The final score didn’t tell the whole story of the evening, though, as the Beach bounced back impressively from a lopsided defeat the night before to push the Bruins to the brink. In the end though, the No. 2-ranked Beach fell to the No. 3-ranked Bruins, 18-25, 25-21, 25-23, 25-23.
“We had a quick turnaround from a match where our guys were really disappointed in the way we played last night,” said LBSU coach Alan Knipe. “I was really, really happy with the response and the energy level…I’m proud of the resolve and the attitude that came into the match.”
The Beach were blown off the court on Thursday night but were the better team statistically in Friday’s narrower loss, outhitting the Bruins .340 to .276, with the Beach killing it on a .529 clip on balls set by setter Aidan Knipe. Long Beach also out-dug UCLA 26-19. What hurt the Beach was late-set execution, those critical points in sets when it was 22-23 or 23-23, with the Bruins able to close out two very tight sets in the third and fourth.
“It’s just going to come down to execution there, just a dig or a cover, a couple plays here or there that we have to clean up,” said Knipe. “But those things will come.”
There was plenty of reason for optimism for Beach fans hoping to be good enough to beat UCLA in the Final Four by the end of the year, as they did last year. For once, Spencer Olivier bounced back from a pair of bad matches to have a very nice match on Friday, with 14 kills on .407 hitting, three blocks, and two digs.
“His response was tremendous, he was very good, consistently good in every area of the game,” said Knipe. “I had quite a few conversations with him. We talked after the match up there, we talked this morning. We told him let’s shorten up your list. Let’s play harder, longer. And we got your back as a team–and I think he did a great job.”
The Beach defense focused around taking UCLA stud Ido David out of the game, a night after he gashed them for 17 kills on .696 hitting. On Friday, David had four kills on negative hitting and was pulled from the match. Still, the Bruins were sharper in the final few points of each set, and Knipe said his team knows that needs to be their focus.
“There’s little things in every area of the match that we can squeeze out a little bit more from,” said Knipe. “That’s what you need to win those close ones. But I’d rather be at a point where you’re squeezing a little bit more out than being a long way away. And last night we were a long way away. Today was just grit, it’s just a gut check. And I think our guys showed what they can do.”
The loss came in front of the third-largest crowd in LBSU history for men’s volleyball, with 4,138 in attendance for an official sellout, the school’s first since 2019..
“After everything we’ve been through the last couple of years, to see a crowd like that, everyone in the Pyramid having a great time, it’s amazing,” said Knipe. “Hopefully we’ll see it again this season and we’ll be that 1% and 2% better and squeeze out a couple of points to go our way.”
Long Beach State (6-2) will return to the Walter Pyramid Friday and Saturday next week to host NJIT.
