{"id":128898,"date":"2026-01-11T07:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T07:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/128898\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T07:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T07:09:08","slug":"no-3-long-beach-state-sweeps-mckendree-to-close-opening-weekend-the562-org","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/128898\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 3 Long Beach State Sweeps McKendree to Close Opening Weekend \u2013 The562.org"},"content":{"rendered":"

The562\u2019s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2025-26 season is sponsored by\u00a0Marilyn Bohl<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The No. 3 Long Beach State men\u2019s volleyball team didn\u2019t need to drop a set on opening weekend to shake off any early-season jitters.<\/p>\n

The defending national champions opened the season at the LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid with a pair of sweeps, dispatching Lindenwood on Friday before closing the weekend with a straight-set win over McKendree on Saturday night. While the Beach never dropped a set, Saturday\u2019s match provided a sterner test, highlighted by a thrilling second set in a 25\u201322, 35\u201333, 25\u201316 victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re proud of how our guys responded after last night,\u201d head coach Nick MacRae said. \u201cTonight we played a good McKendree team, who we could very well see later in the season. We say in our locker room that we can learn as much from a win as we can from a loss. Last night was halftime, and we got our third-quarter response today.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Beach trailed by their largest margin of the night at three points during the second set and went on to fight off a preposterous eight McKendree set points. First-year setter Jake Pazanti led a balanced attack during that stretch and nailed an ace to give the Beach their final set point, followed by a McKendree hitting error that secured a two-set lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good for us long term,\u201d said standout senior Skyler Varga of the second-set rally. \u201cI think we needed to go through that, and even if we didn\u2019t pull out the win in that set, I think it still would\u2019ve been good for us to show that we can come back after being down. It definitely shows our team values, and we really need to go through those moments to be a national championship\u2013level team this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Varga had himself a match, finishing with nine kills on a team-high .368 hitting percentage along with five assists and 11 digs. Perhaps the most impressive stat came from behind the service line, where Varga accounted for seven of the Beach\u2019s 10 aces with just one service error.<\/p>\n

The senior outside hitter is coming off a stint as the youngest member of Team Canada in the Volleyball Nations League this past summer, where he emerged as one of the go-to options and capped the season with a 24-kill performance. Varga spoke about his experience and how it has prepared him for his future in the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings are faster in international volleyball, and people are consistently hitting harder and making fewer errors,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s forced me to focus more on error management and helped me read the game better. No disrespect to NCAA volleyball, but it\u2019s a little slower, which has made it easier for me to read.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opening weekend also gave the Beach a chance to flex some of its depth at opposite, where freshman Wojciech Gajek made his home debut on Friday before Daniil Hershtynovich got the start on Saturday night. Hershtynovich is coming off an injury last season and had a productive night, finishing with a game-high 12 kills.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe flex our depth yet again, and you\u2019re going to constantly see that,\u201d MacRae said. \u201c[Hershtynovich] got 30 swings and hit nearly .400\u2014that\u2019s a shoutout to him. Maybe early on he wasn\u2019t able to find his serve, but that was part of the process tonight of building him up and letting him be himself, knowing that he\u2019s been in those moments again and again. He was very physical tonight, and that\u2019s exactly what this team needs him to be, and we\u2019re very proud of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long Beach State also showed its depth on the outside, where Alex Kandev got the start and finished with seven kills. Connor Bloom entered the match permanently while the Beach trailed midway through the second set and chipped in a pair of kills.<\/p>\n

At the net, the Beach totaled just 6.5 blocks after recording 12 on Friday night, but Saturday provided the middle blockers opportunities to make an impact elsewhere. Ben Braun had a solid night with seven kills on .500 hitting, while freshman Jackson Cryst finished with four kills on .500 hitting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re in charge of our entire unit at the net,\u201d MacRae said. \u201cJust because we don\u2019t have the block stat, it\u2019s about being on the other side of the net as much as possible. It was a good response by McKendree, so instead of saying we have to get 20 blocks, it\u2019s about saying, \u2018Ok, we had six blocks, but how many balls did we dig?\u2019 It\u2019s a credit to them. They did their job getting across the net.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long Beach State will now go on the road next to Ohio, where they\u2019ll face a trio of games next week. That trip will conclude with a match at Ohio State on Saturday, before the Beach returns home to host Fort Valley State on Jan. 23.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The562\u2019s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2025-26 season is sponsored by\u00a0Marilyn Bohl. The No. 3…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-128898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}