The562’s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2025-26 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl.
As it’s been all year, Friday was all about the response for Long Beach State.
The Beach entered the weekend looking to respond to its second loss of the season to UCLA and was given another task to overcome after dropping the first set Friday at Concordia Irvine. The response came in the form of three dominant sets as LBSU went on to defeat the Golden Eagles in the first of back-to-back matches, 19-25, 25-18, 25-17, 25-14.
“That first set was their national championship match, but obviously you saw us settle in and you saw us respond,” said LBSU coach Nick MacRae. “When you make eight attacking errors and then the service errors in the first set, you can’t give them 15 points. Now we’ll go back, break it down on film and respond by being even better tomorrow.”
The first-set loss was the Beach’s first to Concordia since 2020 in a set where they did themselves no favors. LBSU hit just .111 in the opening set with eight attacking errors while finding no success behind the service line. The Beach then closed out the match hitting .611 and .381 in the final two sets, and had five aces in each of the last three.
Freshman pin hitter Wojciech Gajek got his second consecutive start and had a big bounce-back match following UCLA, contributing on both fronts. Gajek finished the night with a team-high 12 kills on .286 hitting, while also delivering a monstrous performance behind the service line with eight aces.
Gajek’s eight aces match the second-most in a single match in school history, tying Moni Nikolov’s regular-season performance against Pepperdine last season and Sotiris Siapanis’ mark against LIU in 2023. Scott Touzinsky holds the record with nine aces in a match against Mercyhurst in 2001.
“We were just trying to respond and be better in every aspect of the game, and I think we did that,” Gajek said after the match. “My main goal tonight was to hit my serves into the other gym, and I did that pretty well. I’m happy with my performance, but it’s halftime. We play tomorrow and we want to be even better.”
The freshman strung together three consecutive aces during his first time at the service line in the second set, helping the Beach go on a 5-0 run to break an early 5-5 tie. A few more runs followed, as the Golden Eagles answered with a five-point run of their own before another five-point surge led by Skylar Varga and capped by a pair of aces helped the Beach pull away in the set.
The Beach’s success on the serve was a result of a point of emphasis leading up to this weekend for MacRae, who wanted to see longer runs from behind the service line. The Beach finished the match with 15 aces compared to just four from Concordia Irvine.
“The takeaway from last week in Pauley Pavilion was to see if we could be better on our second serve,” MacRae said. “Tonight you saw that the guys were better on their second serve, and then they’re hitting five serves in a row. Last week we would score a point and then end our own run, so that was the theme of the week.”
Similarly in the third set, Gajek led a three-point run that included a kill and a pair of aces to help the Beach take an 8-6 lead. LBSU would never trail again in what was its most dominant set of the night, hitting a match-high .611 with just a pair of errors.
A sizable lead in the fourth set allowed MacRae to flex his depth, as outside hitter Myles Jordan and middle Isaiah Preuitt saw time towards the end of the match. The pair helped the Beach close the set on a 9-3 run to secure the four-set victory.
Senior Connor Bloom got the start at outside hitter in place of Alex Kandev, who didn’t make the trip to Irvine due to illness, and finished with nine kills on .438 hitting. Varga had 12 kills on .364 hitting with a pair of aces, while Jackson Cryst added five kills on a team-high .571 clip with two aces.
The Beach will return to the Walter Pyramid tomorrow to finish out its two-match series against Concordia Irvine at 7 pm.
“They’re going to come in physical and alive,” MacRae said of tomorrow night. “They’re going to give us their best brand of volleyball. They see Long Beach State and have us circled as their championship match, and that’s how it should be. That’s the sincerest form of respect, and we’re going to give them the same respect tomorrow.”
