The562’s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2025-26 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl.
If the Long Beach State men’s volleyball team was looking for a signature win of the season – the Beach don’t need to look further than Saturday night.
On the heels of a five-set thriller on Friday, No.3-ranked Beach went on the road and came up with a convincing 25-19, 25-13, 20-25, 25-23 win over No. 5-ranked UC Irvine at the Bren Events Center.
Long Beach State celebrated on the Anteaters’ court after freshman Jackson Cryst hit the match-ending kill to give the Beach an opening win on the same court they’ll try to win a couple more times when they start play in the Big West Tournament next weekend.
Sophomore Kellen Larson put it simply after putting up a career-high 18 digs.
“It’s time to get nice and comfy,” Larson said of playing in the Big West Tournament at the Bren Events Center next week.
While Friday night was the official senior night for LBSU – Connor Bloom and Ben Braun gave another memorable performance as each reached new career highs to help the Beach get out strong in the opening two sets.
Bloom, who has played lights out while filling in for Alex Kandev, continued his strong play in the first set was a one-man wrecking crew early on as he had a 4-0 run himself that included two kills, an ace and a block as LBSU took an 11-6 lead. The senior finished the night with a career-high and match-high 15 kills.
That momentum continued throughout the first set and Daniil Hershytnovich helped give the Beach 1-0 lead as he came in late in the set and put away a couple of kills.
While the Beach’s attack hit at an efficient .429 clip, Long Beach’s defense shined as Ben Braun, Jackson Cryst, Jake Pazanti and Bloom gave the Anteaters’ fits throughout the match.
Long Beach’s block has become a strong point for the Beach over the last couple of weeks, and it couldn’t come at a better time as LBSU had a season-high 16.5 blocks and Braun led the way with a career-high 10 blocks.
That momentum continued into the second set as Long Beach led wire-to-wire in a convincing 25-13 win. Defensively Long Beach held UC Irvine to a .000 hitting percentage and kept UCI out of system for the whole set.
However, after the break between the second and third sets, UCI came out with some fresh legs and jumped out to a 5-0 lead. While the stats weren’t too different between the teams, the Anteaters were able to take advantage of eight Long Beach attack errors to force a fourth set with a 25-20 win.
In the fourth set, Long Beach got back to the style of play they had in the first two sets as they went on a 5-0 run midway through the set to take a 20-12 lead.
“I think a lot of teams get beat by other teams, but when we lose games, we lose to ourselves,” Braun said. “Third-set response is something we’re really big on. Sometimes it doesn’t go our way, but in the gym this week and moving forward, it’s about that response so we don’t give away points and we stay in control of the game.”
That mentality kept the Beach in it as UC Irvine had another run, but LBSU was able to hold on to take the win. The Beach will now look to play a couple more times in Irvine as they look to win their first Big West Championship title since 2024.
“We said we want to make this our home base for the next week and a half with the intention of having three matches,” Long Beach State coach Nick MacRae said. “To beat a top-five team in a back-to-back series is good for our program moving forward. Now it’s about the semifinals and how we’re going to improve in the next four days.”
