In front of a rowdy crowd of 3,054 people, No. 1 Long Beach came out strong against No. 4 UCLA in a national championship rematch.
The 49ers extended their undefeated season 13-0, while the Bruins dropped to 10-4, racking up their second straight loss after a five set defeat Thursday night against No. 6 UCSB. Going back and forth in the first set, Long Beach pulled away to cap off a 25-20 win and never looked back.
The 49ers came out firing, providing immense service pressure, ammassing 12 total aces to the Bruins’ three. Led by senior outside hitter TJ DeFalco, who collected five aces, Long Beach was also able to control the game with its blocking, limiting UCLA to a .260 hitting percentage.
“The best transfer in our play [from practice] was definitely in our serving and passing game,” head coach Alan Knipe said. “The guys were loose and they were confident … overall the thing I was most proud of was the way we started every set, regardless of winning the previous set.”
Long Beach struggled against UCLA middle blocker Daenan Gyimah, who had nine kills on .692 hitting. Fortunately for the 49ers, the Bruins didn’t utilize him enough as he only had 13 attempts. Apart from Gyimah, no one from UCLA hit higher than .333 — credit to Long Beach’s blocking up front.
“When you have service pressure, you’re going to bring some teams off the net and we wanted to capitalize on those moments,” senior setter Josh Tuaniga said. “Our timing, our blocking and just overall being together was one of our biggest focuses this week and it showed with some key stops.”
Long Beach had a game-high six blocks, forcing 15 UCLA hitting errors, paving the way for a sweep.
The 49ers will be back home next week as they begin conference play in back-to-back matches against the Matadors.
Long Beach will take on CSUN 7 p.m. Friday at the Walter Pyramid.
Watch out video coverage of the game here:
Video by: German Rodriguez
Edited by: German Rodriguez & Paula Kiley