Primary ranked Lengthy Seashore State hosted the quantity three UCLA Bruins in entrance of a sold-out Walter Pyramid on Friday night time. The match had all of it; over 70 miles per hour serves, inventive setters, backrow assaults, middles terminating the ball, excessive degree out of system swings and strong protection. The Seashore serving and passing finally have been the deciding issue. They continue to be undefeated (9-0) within the season beating the Bruins (6-2) in 4 units (25-21, 20-25, 25-16, 25-22). “Statistically we have been proper there with them or beat them in lots of classes. It finally got here all the way down to the serve and go recreation. Sadly, we misplaced that battle. Moni Nikolov went on some service runs that made an enormous distinction,” mentioned UCLA Head Coach John Hawks.
Heading into the match there have been loads of storylines to attract in an viewers. The final time these groups confronted off was on the Walter Pyramid on the 2024 NCAA Nationwide Championship and UCLA was topped the champs successful in 4 units. The Bruins are actually led by Coach John Hawks, who over a decade in the past was a former assistant coach below Alan Knipe at Lengthy Seashore State. Each applications have had the previous USA males’s nationwide staff head coaches in John Speraw and Alan Knipe. Many males’s volleyball followers like to debate who’s the higher setter, the Lengthy Seashore State freshman from Bulgaria Moni Nikolov or junior Andrew Rowan who runs the Bruins offense.
Early in set one Nikolov, the present chief in aces within the nation served two straight aces to present Seashore the 7-4 lead. They used that momentum and bought nice contribution from all their pin hitters to regulate many of the set. The Bruins made a late three level run however fell 21-25.
Reverse, David Decker who hails from Winston-Alem, North Carolina continued to supply offense for UCLA within the second set and out of doors Zach Rama had some well timed kills. All through the set the Bruins had management and ultimately received the set.
The balanced offense and continued service stress from Lengthy Seashore propelled them to win the following two units and the match. Pin hitters Skyler Varga, Sotiris Siapanis and Daniil Hershtynovich all made nice contributions for the Seashore. Varga completed with 12 kills and hit .333. Hershtynovich added 10 kills and Siapanis chipped in eight kills whereas hitting .583. Nikolov did a nice job evenly dishing the rock with 35 help and had seven of the Lengthy Seashore State 9 aces. Coach Knipe was capable of focus on the depth of his staff’s offense, “All of our attackers are very able to placing the ball away and hitting for a excessive share. We really feel like we’ve got high quality attackers in each place, and we really feel we’ve got some strong depth at every place. We look ahead to utilizing it when wanted.”
After the match Coach Knipe was capable of go over his ideas on the match, “I believed it was a extremely good match, particularly for a match performed in February. We really feel like there’s lots of issues we might be higher at, however I like the development of this squad.” Coach Knipe did agree with Hawks that the first distinction was the serve and go recreation. “The sport was very a lot decided within the serve and go battle and we count on that to be the case subsequent week.”
The match introduced a remaining 4 like really feel with a sold-out crowd, Lengthy Seashore State marching band enjoying within the stands, an brisk scholar part in pink wigs and dressed as sizzling canines. Throughout timeouts and breaks throughout the match a DJ was blast beats so as to add to the thrill. “The pyramid is a particular place and much more so when it’s packed! We actually respect all of the assist from the scholars and LB nation. These matches between these two groups have grow to be an annual occasion and tonight’s match didn’t disappoint,” mentioned Coach Knipe.
UCLA was led by pin hitters Zach Rama with 15 kills and Cooper Robinson added 10. Decker began the match crimson sizzling with six kills in set one and completed the night time with a complete of 9. When the Bruins have been in system the switch center blocker from GCU Cameron Thorne was capable of put the ball away with seven kills and a .500 hitting share. Rowan ended the night time with 33 help and ran the offense with a .304 hitting share.
These two squads will spend the remainder of the weekend resting and getting ready for a rematch on Wednesday, February 12th. “I just like the combat in our guys, and I’m trying ahead to the to battle Lengthy Seashore in Pauley Pavillion in a number of days. We could have our house crowd and we can be prepared,” mentioned Coach Hawks.
Kevin Pratte has enthusiastically been concerned in volleyball for over 23 years. Pratte began enjoying in center faculty and was lucky sufficient to play NCAA Division 1 volleyball at The College of the Pacific. After his enjoying profession Pratte bought concerned in teaching volleyball. In 2009 Pratte was the graduate assistant coach for the College of Nebraska ladies’s volleyball program. Later in his profession Pratte made teaching stops at College of the Pacific, a number of neighborhood faculties and coached at WAVE Volleyball Membership for seven years. At the moment Pratte is a bodily training instructor within the San Diego Unified Faculty District, San Diego Downtown Breakfast Rotary member, a university volleyball recruiting coordinator, hosts a volleyball podcast present, the proprietor of the Center Hitter web site and runs a non-profit group to assist elevate funds to present boys’ highschool volleyball college students scholarships to play membership volleyball. He’s excited to proceed writing for Volleyball Journal and is raring to cowl the sport.
Basis web site: www.kevinprattefoundation.com
Center Hitter Web site: www.middlehitter.com
KP HERE Podcast: Spotify