The562’s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2025-26 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl.
You don’t often get the chance to see the country’s best go head-to-head, and Friday night’s national championship rematch between Long Beach State and UCLA delivered exactly what you’d expect from the top two teams in the nation.
In front of a sold-out LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid, the 4,200+ fans in attendance got tastes of both teams’ best. The No. 2 Beach started strong against top-ranked UCLA and looked every bit of the defending national champion through two and a half sets, even building a five-point third-set lead while on the cusp of a sweep.
Unfortunately for the Beach, the match had more in store than a straight-set win. Instead, LBSU was tasked with fighting off a daunting UCLA attack in the final three sets, a momentum shift that proved to be too much. The Beach went on to take its first loss of the season in a reverse sweep, falling 25-17, 25-22, 22-25, 19-25, 10-15.
“My job is to take ownership as the head coach and find a way to get our guys one or two more points, especially in that third set when we had all of the momentum,” said LBSU coach Nick MacRae. “Obviously credit to them for continuing to battle, but when it goes to a fifth set, it’s anyone’s game. We’re going to play these guys again in a couple of weeks, and this could be a telltale sign of a matchup at the end of the year.”
For what’s been such a tight matchup each of the times they’ve faced off in the past few years, it was just the first five-setter between LBSU and UCLA since 2022. After the match, senior captain Skyler Varga echoed the value that can be taken from a loss as they’ll get another opportunity at UCLA when they travel to Pauley Pavilion on Feb. 20.
“You don’t have to say it’s necessary to lose, but it’s definitely a good learning curve for us,” said Varga said. “The team you’re going to see in two weeks is not going to be the same as tonight for sure. It’s necessary to have a fifth set every once in a while, and it was important for us to feel the energy and the pressure. We’re going to take a lot of lessons and learn from that.”
It would be hard to script a better start to the match than the first set the Beach played, in which they led by as many as nine as the Beach benefited from 17 total UCLA errors while finding four players with multiple kills. Freshman Jackson Cryst had a pair along with an ace, hitting without an error and adding a kill to send the Beach to set point.
Even a much closer second set still swung LBSU’s way, as the Beach hit their best .429 in the set and erased a one-point deficit while trailing 19-20 at one point. The Beach closed the set on a 6-2 run, including a pair of kills from Daniil Nershtynovich, which finished the second set with six kills on .357 hitting.
Still, the Beach looked strong in a third set that they led the entire way until it was 20-18. From there, the Bruins went on a 7-2 run to close out the set, which included three kills from sophomore Sean Kelly, including the kill at set point. UCLA’s late push helped erase a five-point deficit in their first set win of the night, which proved to be a tremendous momentum shift.
“We came out rocking in the first two sets and up by five in the third, and that’s where I lean on what I said,” MacRae said. “I take ownership. I can’t get the guys 10-15 points in the match, but I can get the guys two points, so that’s me and my staff’s job to say, ‘Okay, we’re walking out of here in three.’”
Things began to go downhill in a third set in which the Beach fell behind early and never led. As a result, MacRae inserted several new faces in the final two sets in search of a spark, including middle blocker Isaiah Pruitt, who saw his first playing time since coming back from injury. Wojciech Gajek also played a portion of the fourth set while Connor Bloom subbed in during the fifth set.
“It was about letting some guys catch their breath while we’re duking it out in a battle and let’s get some fresh legs and some fresh minds in there to try and see if there can be a spark that occurs,” MacRae said. “If they’re able to change the match within that fourth set, that’s great, and then it’s having our preparation going into a fifth set.”
UCLA stayed in control to jump out to a 5-2 lead in the fifth set before a quick response from the Beach. Varga had his only pair of aces on the tail end of that 3-0 run, which brought the Beach back to tie it. The teams found themselves knotted up three more times in the fifth set before UCLA closed on a 7-2 run.
“It just felt good in the fifth set and I let it rip,” Varga said of his burst of momentum. “Two aces in a row felt good, and unfortunately I missed that third because that could have been a big momentum change. There’s a lot of things that go into it but, yeah, it was a battle.”
Varga finished with a team-high 12 kills on .194 hitting, while Hershtynovich and Alex Kandev each added 10 kills. Kandev also posted a team-high 10 digs while Jake Pazanti racked up 34 assists. Cryst chipped in six kills on .556 hitting to go with four blocks and two aces.
The loss comes during the Beach’s second one-match week as part of a four-week stretch of games with only one match per week. LBSU will continue play against Vanguard next week in the Pyramid before finishing off their stretch of one-game weeks with a rematch against UCLA.
“It’s okay to feel this way and lean into it,” MacRae said of losing. “We don’t want it to feel this way when it’s the final match of the season. Everything is still within our control to continue to improve, battle, and absolutely conquer.”
