The562’s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2025-26 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl.
It was a fairytale ending to senior night at the LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid on Friday, as No. 3 Long Beach State played its best when it mattered most while hosting No. 5 UC Irvine in the Beach’s final home game of the season. Momentum swung both ways as the teams split the first four sets, but it ultimately landed with the Beach, who dominated the fifth to close out a 25-17, 25-21, 24-26, 21-25, 15-9 win and clinch the No. 2 seed in the Big West.
Long Beach State hosted its senior-night ceremony after the match to celebrate five seniors in their final home game: Skyler Varga, Ben Braun, Island Doty, Dane Hillis and Connor Bloom. After the ceremony, LBSU coach Nick MacRae brought all five seniors to the postgame press conference to reflect on the win and their time with the program.
“It was a five-set, gauntlet win with 3,000 LB Nation fans and five seniors who have changed this program’s life, this community’s life, this university’s life and my life,” MacRae said. “Now we’re walking out of here and it’s halftime, and we’re gonna try to get one more tomorrow at their place. But it’s an absolute celebration for these seniors, and it feels a bit better being on this side of a big-time five-set win.”
Despite dropping consecutive sets in the third and fourth, the Beach flipped the script and delivered their best set of the night in the fifth. LBSU hit .474 in the set, led by senior outside hitter Skyler Varga, who accounted for a third of the Beach’s fifth-set points including the kill at match point.
Varga put on a show for his parents in the stands, who made the trip from Saskatchewan, Canada, to watch him play on senior night. He finished with a match-high 17 kills on .250 hitting and reflected on his final game in the Pyramid after the match.
“I was just trying to put down the dagger on that last one. I feel like we could’ve done that in three, but it’s good to come up with a win on senior night so that was a great feeling,” he said. “It’s great to have my family out, too. They’ve done a lot for me through all of my athletics growing up, with the time and money and effort that they’ve put towards me. I’m super grateful for them and it always gives me a little kick to play in front of them.”
LBSU sustained numerous long runs between the first and second sets and cruised to a two-set lead. The Beach had a 7-1 run that gave them their first and final lead of the first set before extending that advantage with a five-point run later in the set.
The Beach then hit their best .481 in the second set without a single hitting error and just three service errors. The efficient night was led by freshman middle blocker Jackson Cryst, who was 8-for-8 at one point and finished with 10 kills on a match-best .833 hitting percentage to go along with five blocks.
Cryst also showed resiliency for the Beach in the fourth set, as they trailed 24-20 with him at the service line. The freshman proceeded to go on a four-point service run to tie the set at 24-24 and force an Irvine timeout. Unfortunately, a service error and a kill coming out of the timeout gave the Anteaters their first set.
UC Irvine built on that momentum in the fourth, which served as its most dominant set of the night. After it was tied 19-19, the Anteaters closed the set out on a 6-2 run to lead by their most of the set and send the game to a fifth.
The Beach rotated between Island Doty and Daniil Hershtynovich with Jake Pazanti and Wojciech Gajek at setter and opposite, respectively, but stuck with Pazanti and Gajek in the fifth set. Gajek had a pair of kills and an ace in three consecutive points as part of a 10-4 run to close out the match.
LBSU had five players finish with double-digit kills, including both Hershtynovich and Gajek with 10 each. Varga finished with a match-high 17, while Connor Bloom had 15 kills on .333 hitting and Cryst added 10. Doty finished with 33 assists while Pazanti had 24, and both Kellen Larson and Doty had 11 digs.
The win claims the No. 2 seed in the Big West for LBSU, with the top two seeds earning a bye in next week’s Big West Tournament. The Beach will close out the season against UC Irvine tomorrow before facing the winner between the No. 3 and No. 6 seeds in the semifinals Friday at the Bren Events Center at UC Irvine.
“We like to play the game one way, and I think we did that tonight through all five sets,” Hillis said after the match. “I have no doubt our brand of volleyball will hold up, not only in the conference tournament but also in the NCAA Tournament at the end of the year.”
