The562’s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2025-26 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl.
Friday night’s Big West opener may ultimately be remembered as either a sign of Long Beach State’s season-long struggles or a turning point in its trajectory.
The No. 2 Beach (14-3, 0-1) had their hands full in front of a sellout crowd, hosting rivals Hawai’i (18-3, 1-0) in the first of back-to-back meetings at the LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid in a contest that had five sets written all over it. Once it reached a fifth set, though, the Beach couldn’t overcome their error-filled night, falling to the Rainbow Warriors 24-26, 25-23, 19-25, 25-20, 12-15.
Long Beach State finished with 54 total errors to Hawai’i’s 34, including 26 service errors and 28 attacking errors. After the match, head coach Nick MacRae pointed to the Beach’s recent injury bug, as the Beach played without opposite Daniil Hershtynovich and middle blocker Ben Braun, both regular starters this season.
“If you were in our gym this week you would’ve seen that Long Beach State is going through a lot of diversity, but I can’t get into more information because of HIPAA and all of that,” MacRae said. “How are we going to respond? We’re going to face it. We’re going to try and fix it and we’re going to take full ownership every step through it.”
Freshman opposite Wojciech Gajek had been the Beach’s night-two starter but has taken on a bigger role over the past month, continuing to make a name for himself Friday while carrying a heavy load. Gajek finished with a match-high 22 kills while hitting .381.
The first set was a sign of the tightly contested match to come, as the teams were knotted for most of the set while posting their best hitting numbers of the night. LBSU hit .382 in the opening set to Hawai’i’s .455, however the Beach trailed by as many as three at 24-21 before fighting off three straight set points. Hawai’i then closed it out with a side-out and an ace to take an early lead.
Momentum swung back and forth over the next three sets, first settling with the Beach in another tight second frame. That’s when Gajek made his presence felt at the pins, racking up 12 kills in the first two sets. Gajek sparked a 6-1 run midway through the set, finishing it with back-to-back kills to give the Beach a second-set lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
Hawai’i was the bigger presence at the net for most of the night and recorded six of its 12.5 total blocks in a dominant third set for the visitors. LBSU responded well, though, tallying four blocks in the following set as momentum swung back in its favor in a convincing win to send the match to a fifth set.
“We had our plan and we had our countermoves, and you saw the changes set by set,” MacRae said. “So set by set we were making adjustments. They were outblocking us, and by the time we got the fourth and the fifth sets we made adjustments to have what we lost in the first and the third sets.”
Freshman middle blocker Jackson Cryst was a big part of those adjustments and grew into the match, both at the net and from the service line. Cryst delivered back-to-back aces during a run to open the fourth set and finished the night with seven kills while hitting .556 and adding five total blocks.
Cryst, a Long Beach native playing at his father Geoff’s alma mater, embraced the home crowd after his hot start in the fourth set while hyping up the Beach student section.
“All my guys free me up on those good tosses to really get after it and try to score, and that was the case on those two balls,” Cryst said. “And then the student section was incredible—showing up and being loud creates a lot of momentum, and that helps a lot. So credit to my guys for keeping me back there and to the student section for showing up.”
The Beach carried its momentum into the fifth set to open a 5-2 lead. From there, Hawai’i went on a 4-1 run, aided by three Long Beach net violations and an antenna violation. The Beach held an 8-7 lead at the midway point before committing five more errors down the stretch as Hawai’i closed on an 8-4 run for the win.
Behind Gajek’s standout night, Skyler Varga finished with 15 kills while hitting .163, while Alex Kandev added 11 kills on .143 hitting. Jake Pazanti racked up 53 assists and recorded a match-high 11 digs.
For Hawai’i, Kristian Titriyski had a team-high 13 kills while hitting .114, while Louis Sakanoko added eight kills while hitting .500 and was red-carded in the third set after exchanging words with a referee. Tred Rosenthal finished with 35 assists.
The pair will face off in their second and final matchup Saturday at 7 pm at the LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid.
“This was phase one. We’re prepping if we gotta do that again tomorrow, and we’ve got a couple of counters, but can we lean on our older guys that have been in this moment?” MacRae said. “That’s with guys like Skyer Varga, Alex Kandev, Kellen Larson, to continue to improve and flex our serve receive.”
