{"id":38694,"date":"2025-11-05T05:46:36","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T05:46:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/38694\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T05:46:36","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T05:46:36","slug":"middles-maxwell-lead-womens-volleyball-to-sweep-over-uc-irvine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/38694\/","title":{"rendered":"Middles, Maxwell Lead Women\u2019s Volleyball To Sweep Over UC Irvine"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONG BEACH, Calif. \u2013 Long Beach State found the middle early and often, as Nieko Thomas<\/a> finished with 10 kills on .533 hitting and Rhiann Sheffie<\/a> had 9 kills with no errors on .643 hitting to lead the way for Long Beach State in a 25-15, 25-23, 25-22 win over UC Irvine.
\n\u00a0
\nMadi Maxwell<\/a> recorded her second triple-double in a week while guiding the offense for Long Beach State (17-6, 10-2 Big West), finishing with 10 kills, 11 digs, and 27 assists as the Beach hit .270 overall on the night.
\n\u00a0
\nNieko Thomas<\/a> had a big set for the Beach in the opener, making five kills with no errors on eight swings. Two straight kills for Thomas followed by a UC Irvine (10-14, 5-8 Big West) error gave the Beach a 6-4 lead. An ace by Sydney Hamaker helped increase the lead to 12-8, and a block by Thomas and Madi Maxwell<\/a> followed by a sneaky dump from Maxwell put LBSU on top 18-11. The Beach then closed out the set 25-15, ultimately hitting .371 in the first.
\n\u00a0
\nUC Irvine opened the second set with an early lead, but the Beach found Thomas again to even the score at 4-4. Logan King<\/a> and Rhiann Sheffie<\/a> combined for a block to put the Beach in front 9-7 before finding King for another kill to push to 10-7. Back-to-back blocks from King and Thomas kept the Beach in front 15-12, and then another block had the Beach on top 20-15.
\n\u00a0
\nThe ‘Eaters rallied in the set, ultimately tying things up at 22-22, but a first-touch swing from Sheffie with authority turned the momentum with a sideout at 23-22. The Beach then closed out the set with a Maxwell dump, winning 25-23.
\n\u00a0
\nTatum Hoff<\/a> opened the set on a 4-1 service run for Long Beach State in the third, and the Beach would push out to an 11-6 lead. UC Irvine refused to quit, however, cutting the lead to one at 11-10 before the Beach built an edge again up to 18-13. The Anteaters had one more answer, tying the set at 19-19. Natalie Reagan<\/a> turned to Madi Collins<\/a>, who found Maxwell on the right side for a huge kill to stay in front after subbing into the game. Izzy Mahaffey<\/a> made two of her career-high three aces on the night in the next stretch, pushing the Beach up to a 23-19 lead, and Maxwell closed out the match on the right side with a kill.
\n\u00a0
\nAfter back-to-back sweeps in conference play, Long Beach State will face a critical road trip, heading up the Central Coast to face Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara on November 7 and 8.
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONG BEACH, Calif. \u2013 Long Beach State found the middle early and often, as Nieko Thomas finished with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-38694","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\/38694","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=38694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}