An opportunity to host top-ranked Long Beach State created an electric atmosphere in the Thunderdome, but the Gauchos’ upset bid fell short on Thursday night.
Coming off three consecutive victories, the UC Santa Barbara men’s volleyball team hung tough, but struggled to overcome the visiting 49ers’ size in a 25-23, 25-16, 19-25, 25-19 Big West Conference loss.
“They are a tall team. Obviously, their setter is world-class, but, standing next to them, they got a lot of tall guys. Every single one of them is 6’6″ or 6’7″,” said UC Santa Barbara veteran outside hitter Ben Coordt. “They got height, so they get away with a lot of stuff. I don’t say mismatches, but we don’t have much room for error. When we’re a little undersized, we got to be that much more precise and perfect.”
The Gauchos were in position to steal the first set as an ace serve by George Bruening, increased their lead to 19-17, but Long Beach State’s superstar setter Moni Nikolov responded with an ace serve of his own that evened the set at 20-20.
The two team’s continued to go back and forth until a spike by Long Beach State’s freshman outside hitter Alexander Kandev off the top of the block and out of bounds gave the 49ers a 23-22 lead and forced a UC Santa Barbara time-out.
Long Beach State reached set point when Kandev and DiAeris McRaven combined for a block and clinched the net on a UC Santa Barbara serving error.
Narrowly dropping the first set was a huge blow for the Gauchos.
“We knew we had to come out strong. They were a tough team. We had to get after them from the service line,” Coordt said. Maybe in our own atmosphere, we hope they come out a little flat, and we just really bring our own energy and feed off the fans here.”
The disappointing finish to set one carried over to set two as Long Beach State jumped out to a 15-8 lead on another ace by Nikolov.
A kill by Ben Braun extended the Long Beach State lead to 19-9, but the Gauchos ripped off a 7-3 run capped off by a Cole Schobel kill, cutting their deficit to 22-16.
The 49ers closed the second set with three consecutive points, including a Skyler Varga kill that clinched the set. Long Beach State hit .412 as a team for the match and were led by Kandev, who finished with a match-high 13 kills.
UC Santa Barbara came out on fire in set three and took a 9-4 lead on a spike by Riggs Guy. Back-to-back kills by Guy and Josh Aruya extended the Gauchos’ lead to 23-17, and UC Santa Barbara forced a fourth set, extending the match, on a Long Beach State serving error.
The Gauchos tied the score at 4-4 in set four when Bruening’s hitting error was overturned upon review, resulting in a kill just inside the back line.
However, Long Beach State took control of the match with an 8-0 run capped off by an ace serve from Daniil Hershtynovich that gave the 49ers a 12-4 lead. The Gauchos never recovered as Long Beach State clinched the fourth and final set on a spike straight down by Kandev.
With the victory, Long Beach State improved 22-1 overall this season. The Gauchos dropped to 11-11. The two teams will complete their two-game series on Friday, in Long Beach, beginning at 7 p.m.
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