{"id":71977,"date":"2025-11-27T09:17:35","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T09:17:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/71977\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T09:17:35","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T09:17:35","slug":"lbsu-sweeps-its-way-to-the-big-west-championship-semifinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/71977\/","title":{"rendered":"LBSU sweeps its way to the Big West Championship semifinals"},"content":{"rendered":"

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LBSU senior middle blocker Rhiann Sheffie celebrates her match-winning block with her teammates during the first round of the Big West Championship at the LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid on Wednesday, Nov. 26. The Beach took down the Anteaters in three sets, punching their ticket to the semifinals. Ethan Cohen | Long Beach Current<\/p>\n

No. 3 seed Long Beach State women\u2019s volleyball advanced to the Big West Championship semifinals after a resounding sweep of UC Irvine in the first round at the LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid on Wednesday, Nov. 26.<\/p>\n

The hosts of the tournament, LBSU held a slight 5-4 early lead off the back of two of the five first set kills from LBSU senior middle blocker Rhiann Sheffie<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Young LBSU fans hold up a \u201cGo Beach\u201d sign during the first round of the Big West Championship at the LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid on Wednesday, Nov. 26. The Beach took down the Anteaters in a sweep. Ethan Cohen | Long Beach Current<\/p>\n

\u00a0A 5-0 Beach run spurred by Anteater attack errors and a solo block by senior outside hitter and All-Big West Second Team selection Elise Agi<\/a> put LBSU ahead 10-5.<\/p>\n

Celebrating their star Canadian opposite hitter, \u201cO Canada\u201d was sung from the LBSU bench as All-Big West First Team selection and redshirt freshman Logan King<\/a> fired an ace past UCI before a kill by freshman middle blocker Sidney Hamaker<\/a> capped off a 4-0 Beach run, extending the lead to 16-8.<\/p>\n

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Long Beach State freshman opposite hitter Logan King spikes the ball past the UCI defense during the first round of the Big West Championship on Wednesday, Nov. 26. King had 11 kills in the match. Ethan Cohen | Long Beach Current<\/p>\n

The Anteaters (13-18)\u00a0 found life with a late surge, mustering a late 5-0 run to try to survive the first set, but a kill from senior middle blocker Nieko Thomas<\/a> sealed set one in The Beach\u2019s favor, 25-18.<\/p>\n

Thomas continued to catch fire, as she began the tightly contested second set with three early kills to put LBSU just ahead at 9-8.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur middles have been awesome,\u201d LBSU head coach Natalie Reagan said. \u201cTo lean on them in those tough moments means a ton, and it just balances our offense that much more.\u201d<\/p>\n

UCI senior outside hitter and Big-West Honorable Mention Kendra Duffey<\/a> tied the set at 11 with her second of six second set kills, trying to push UCI towards a set win.<\/p>\n

However, Duffey\u2019s push did not have enough force behind it, as attack errors and two Hamaker kills gave The Beach a set controlling 6-0 run to lead 17-11.<\/p>\n

A four-kill set from Agi set up Hamaker for a dagger kill to give LBSU the second set 25-20, taking a commanding two set lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just one set away from advancing to the Big West Championship semifinals, The Beach found themselves up 13-7 after sophomore setter and All Big-West Second Team selection Madi Maxwell<\/a> served an ace to finish off a dominant 7-0 run.<\/p>\n

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Long Beach State junior defensive specialist Laurel Barsocchini digs the ball during the first round of the Big West Championship at the Pyramid on Wednesday, Nov. 26. LBSU beat UCI and moved on to the semifinals. Ethan Cohen | Long Beach Current<\/p>\n

Not ready for their season to end, the Anteaters crawled all the way back with an 8-0 run of their own to take a surprising 18-17 lead, coming by way of strong blocking to force a Beach timeout.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn that moment, I was just going back and telling everyone that I was going to be ripping balls, and I know that everyone has my back with that,\u201d Agi said. \u201cI get really excited when I have those pressure moments because I\u2019m like, \u2018Okay, this is what I love to do.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

An even split of 14 kills by Agi and King allowed The Beach to punch back, setting them up for set point as a shared block by King and Sheffie sent LBSU into the semifinals 26-24.<\/p>\n

Agi, King and Sheffie all hit double-digit kills, as The Beach continued to defend their home turf, staying undefeated against conference opponents at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think our defense and our setting really helped make it easy for me to pick the right shots,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n

With the win, The Beach are now one step closer to the Big West crown, as they take on the No. 2 seed Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Mustangs (23-7) in the semifinals on Friday, Nov. 28.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCal Poly is a great team, and their offense is hard to stop\u2026but it really just comes down to the serve and pass battle that triggers so much in the game,\u201d Reagan said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LBSU senior middle blocker Rhiann Sheffie celebrates her match-winning block with her teammates during the first round of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-71977","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\/71977","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=71977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}