Penn State hit the road and headed for sunny California for a three-match stretch against some of the best programs in the country – the first of which was the defending National Champions, No. 2 Long Beach State.
With boots on the ground in The Golden State, the Nittany Lions gave it their all against the Beach but couldn’t get it done, getting hit with a 3-0 sweep in their first match out west.
The blue and white opened up the scoring in the first set, getting off to an early 2-1 lead thanks to a pair of kills from Matthew Luoma and Owen Rose.
The 6-foot-7 Rose was recently awarded the EIVA Defensive Player of the Week for the fifth time in his career. The middle blocker also set a school-record 14 kills against Harvard on Feb. 20.
Backed by two separate 3-1 scoring runs, the Beach quickly overcame the Nittany Lions’ early lead and jumped out to an 11-6 advantage after back-to-back aces from middle blocker Jackson Cryst as well as a triple block play from Skyler Varga, Ben Braun and Wojciech Gajek.
Varga was announced to the AVCA National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Player of the Year Watch List earlier this season.
Gajek recently earned Big West Freshman Of The Week honors after a two-game series against CUI, and entered Saturday’s match against Penn State with 67 kills on the season.
Despite the Beach growing its lead, neither side gave in and points were traded back-and-forth, with Michael Schwob picking up an ace for the blue and white along the way to a 16-16 standstill.
Long Beach State took a timeout when the score was tied at 20-20, with Alex Kandev and Cryst both tallying aces for the Beach, matched by kills from Penn State’s Sean Harvey and Tristan Hassell – both of whom hold the first and second-most kills for the blue and white with 167 and 94, respectively.
It looked like it could go either way right at the end, with both teams sitting at 24 points and needing to reach 26, but the Beach ultimately captured the first set thanks to an ace on the serve from Kandev.
Unlike the first set, Long Beach State got on the board first in the second set by way of error on Schwob’s serve, with the first three points of the set all coming from service errors.
Sophomore middle blocker Gaige Gabriel – who has the third most kills for the blue and white this season – gave the Nittany Lions a 7-5 lead in the second frame with the assist going to Schwob.
The Beach took it personally and went on a 3-0 scoring run to immediately reclaim its lead, capped off with an ace from Gajek.
Again, neither end outright pulled away and kept trading scores, with Jaidyn Bethel and Luoma notching kills for the blue and white to match Braedon Marquardt and Varga’s kills.
Luoma and Bethel hold the fourth and fifth-most kills for Penn State, with Luoma’s 78 and Bethel’s 68.
Long Beach State finally started to extend its lead, creeping ever closer to victory in the second set after back-to-back aces from Marquardt made it a 20-15 lead for the Beach.
Backed by kills from Cryst and Daniil Hershtynovich, the Beach stole the second frame and moved one set closer to sweeping the No. 16-ranked Nittany Lions.
Hershtynovich entered Saturday’s match with the fourth-most kills on Long Beach State, with 65.
The Beach got off to a hot 3-1 start in the early running of the third frame, backed by a Varga kill, a Connor Bloom ace, and a Rose error, but the blue and white fought back and tied the affair at 3-3 thanks to a Rose kill, making up for his prior mistake.
Following the trend from the rest of the match, the third set stayed tight from that point on, with Penn State falling into a deficit but cutting it to 11-10 with the help of several back-to-back errors.
The score remained tied for a while until the Beach went on a 5-2 scoring run backed by two Varga kills to make its advantage 17-15 with the sweep in sight.
An ace from Gajek that gave Long Beach State a two-point advantage looked like a big shot of momentum, but an error on his serve just seconds later sucked the momentum away as Penn State looked to capitalize.
A kill from Harvey just wasn’t enough to turn the tide as the Beach sailed to a third set 25-19 victory thanks to a Cryst ace that sealed the deal on the sweep and put a wrap on the night.
Up Next
Penn State stays on the West Coast for its next two matches, the first of which is against No. 7 Pepperdine at 9 p.m. Wednesday.
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