The562’s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2025-26 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl.
The opening weekend of Big West Conference play went about as well as you could hope for Long Beach State.
A night after sweeping UC Irvine on the road, the Beach (9-4, 2-0) returned to Walter Pyramid to host Cal State Fullerton on Saturday evening, easily dismissing the Titans in a 25-10, 25-19, 25-11 sweep, earning their sixth victory in a row.
Beach head coach Natalie Reagan said her team was able to play “Long Beach volleyball” this weekend, and lived up to their standard of play.
“I saw what I wanted to see,” Reagan said. “The big thing that we’ve been talking about is trusting our block and D, and our serve has been really good and consistent in that sense. And so that was a really big part of what we wanted to see this week, and I felt like we saw that.”
Long Beach had 10 blocks as a team and made it difficult for Fullerton to score all night. The Titans had 23 errors and 20 kills on the night, finishing with a -.030 hitting percentage. It’s the first time Long Beach State has held an opponent to a negative hitting percentage since the last time they played Fullerton, in October of last year.
On the other side of the net, the Beach hit .349, and had five players with five or more kills, led by 11 from freshman Sidney Hamaker and 10 from redshirt freshman Logan King.
“I think it’s just our serve and pass,” said Hamaker on what led to LBSU’s offensive success. “We’ve been passing very, very well. And we’re a really tough serving team, and we get to face that every day in practice, and it makes our passing that much better. When we pass on the net, you see our tempo, it’s really fast, so it’s really hard to stop.”
That makes four consecutive matches with double-digit kills for Hamaker, who’s settling in well to her new role as a freshman. Originally recruited as a middle, Hamaker was moved to outside hitter mid-season and is beginning to flourish in the new role. She credited her teammates for their help in transitioning to her new role, but Reagan made sure to credit her freshman’s work to change positions and help the team.
“The transition that Sid made, not everyone can make it,” said Reagan. “To have the mental capacity and physical skill to be able to make that transition at a high level, and play at the level that she is right now, is really impressive.”
The Beach got off to a flying start in the opening stanza, jumping out to a 6-1 lead over the Titans. Lakewood High grad Ketesia “Keke” Hall helped pull the visitors within two, as a block and a kill on consecutive points cut the Long Beach lead down to 10-8, but that’s as close as Fullerton could get.
From that point, Long Beach went on an impressive 12-0 run to open up a 22-8 lead, with Elise Agi behind the service line. Middle blocker Poja Bujnarowska subbed in during that 12-0 run and had blocks on three consecutive points, including a solo roof. Hamaker had six kills on seven swings, hitting .714 in that opening set.
Things were more competitive in set two, as the Beach were unable to maintain their .480 hitting percentage from the first game. An early 5-0 spurt gave LBSU an 8-4 lead that they would never relinquish. Long Beach scored the last four points of the set on a pair of kills by King, then a pair of Titans hitting errors to win it, 25-19.
LBSU didn’t let up at all in the third set, racing out to a 7-1 lead, and then a 13-3 advantage on an ace by Tatum Hoff. The Beach never let their foot off the gas, and nearly held the Titans to single digits in that set. Their intensity was personified by King’s terrific effort chasing down a ball into the courtside seats, which led to a solo roof by Rhiann Sheffie to put the Beach up 14-4.
Long Beach State remains at home next weekend for a pair of key matches against two of the conference’s top teams. The Beach host UC Santa Barbara on Friday at 7 p.m. and then take on Cal Poly on Saturday at 6 p.m. Both opponents are currently receiving votes in the AVCA national rankings.
