{"id":230954,"date":"2026-03-22T06:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T06:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/230954\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T06:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T06:02:08","slug":"no-2-long-beach-state-thumped-by-no-3-hawaii-in-night-two-sweep-the562-org","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/230954\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 2 Long Beach State Thumped by No. 3 Hawai\u2019i in Night-Two Sweep \u2013 The562.org"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

After a thrilling five-set loss to No. 3 Hawai\u2019i (19-3, 2-0) in Friday\u2019s Big West opener, Saturday served as a reality check for No. 2 Long Beach State (14-4, 0-2). The Beach had an opportunity to respond in the second match at the LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid but instead it turned into a disastrous night-two finish, as the Rainbow Warriors swept LBSU 25-18, 25-23, 25-20.<\/p>\n

The loss marks the first time the Beach has lost both of its regular-season matches to Hawai\u2019i since 2021, the same year Hawai\u2019i went on to claim its first of two straight NCAA national championships.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no other choice. We\u2019re going to continue to respond, lean in and improve our craft from top to bottom,\u201d LBSU coach Nick MacRae said. \u201cWe\u2019ll take 24 hours, then come in Monday and start our prep for Northridge. We\u2019ll keep this weekend in mind and with our matches against UCLA and Hawai\u2019i, knowing those are the teams we\u2019re preparing to be at our best for when we cross paths again later on.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the few positives from the weekend was the performance of freshman opposite Wojciech Gajek, who continued his tear after a monstrous showing on night one. Gajek once again led the match in kills with 16, hitting a team-best .367 at the pins while also recording an ace and three block assists.<\/p>\n

Gajek\u2019s contributions have been especially important for a Beach team dealing with a recent wave of minor injuries, as he\u2019s taken over as the full-time starter on the right side over the past month. Even veteran players like Skyler Varga have fed off his energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe might be young, but he\u2019s got a lot of experience on the international stage,\u201d Varga said of Gajek. \u201cIt kind of feels like he\u2019s another leader out there, and he\u2019s doing a great job bringing the energy while staying composed. He\u2019s done a great job the last two nights, but we\u2019ve got to help him out too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps Long Beach\u2019s best set of the night came in the second set, where the Beach managed its best .292 hitting percentage while going the entire set without a service error. The Beach nearly reached set point at 23-20 before giving up a 5-0 Hawai\u2019i run to shut the door on its most promising opportunity of the night.<\/p>\n

The lousy finish to the second set has been a theme in the Beach\u2019s four losses against Hawai\u2019i and UCLA. The Beach led at the midway point of each of its fifth sets against the two top-3 opponents and also held leads down the stretch in both third sets against UCLA, including an opportunity for a night-one sweep, but ultimately couldn\u2019t close out any of those sets.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re always going to be talking about composure late\u2014execution and composure. That\u2019s late in sets, late in matches and late in the season,\u201d MacRae said. \u201cSo we\u2019ll continue to address that the rest of the way via the Big West, the Big West Tournament and into the NCAA Tournament as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Beach was dominated by Hawai\u2019i in the first and third sets and finished a rough third set with 14 total errors, including nine from the service line after going the previous set without one. After a night polluted with errors on Friday, the Beach still had 31 total errors through three sets on Saturday to Hawai\u2019i\u2019s 23.<\/p>\n

Hawai\u2019i hit .473 on the night compared to LBSU\u2019s .218, getting an efficient night-two performance from Louis Sakanoko with 15 kills while hitting a match-high .619. Kristian Titriyski also had a more efficient night hitting .400 with 11 kills, while Tred Rosenthal added 33 assists and three kills.<\/p>\n

Gajek was the only hitter in double-figure kills for the Beach while Varga finished behind him with seven kills on .267 hitting. Fellow outside Alex Kandev chipped in six kills on .188 hitting.<\/p>\n

LBSU will now move forward with Big West play as they look ahead to a pair of matches against CSUN next week. The Beach will be at CSUN on Friday before hosting the Matador\u2019s in the LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited for everyone to come in as healthy as possible and as capable as possible this\u00a0 Monday to get a reset and to get after it,\u201d MacRae said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The562\u2019s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2025-26 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl. After a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-230954","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\/230954","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=230954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}