No. 9 Penn State men’s volleyball (12-4) fell to No. 2 Long Beach State (14-1) 3-1 in California on Friday night.

Penn State struggled to keep up with Long Beach State for the first two sets. it avoided the sweep by winning the third set, but it wasn’t enough to come back as Long Beach State won on to win the fourth set to give it a 3-1 set victory.

How It Happened

The first set started with three straight kills, two by Long Beach State and one by Penn State, which made the score 2-1 in favor of Long Beach State. After an ace by Long Beach State’s Skyler Varga, Penn State responded with two straight kills by John Kerr and Toby Ezeonu to tie the game at three.

Both teams went blow-for-blow for the next six points until kills by Long Beac State’s Varga and Sotiris Siapanis gave it an 8-6 lead. After Kowal and Varga exchanged kills for both teams, Penn State got within a point when Lazar Bouchkov committed a service error. However, the Nittany Lions could not build momentum off this as Long Beach State went on a 3-0 run that consisted of two attack errors by Ezeonu and Valenzi and an ace by Varga, which forced the Nittany Lions to take a timeout.

After the timeout, Long Beach State extended the run with a kill by Varga to extend its 13-8 lead. This run ended when Varga committed a service error. After an attack error by Kerr, the Nittany Lions scored three of the next four points as they decreased Long Beach State’s lead to three. Both teams exchanged the next four points which consisted of two errors and kills by Long Beach State, which went on to score four of the next five which increased its lead up to six. The Nittany Lions responded by scoring the next two points from a service error by Connor Bloom and a kill by Ezeonu to decrease Long Beach State’s lead to four.

However, Penn State’s momentum was short-lived as Long Beach State scored four of the next five points, which was highlighted by two aces by Varga and Siapanis. This led to set point for Long Beach State, and it took advantage of the opportunity as it won the first set 25-17 with a kill by Godbold.

The second set began with an attack error by Kerr. The errors kept piling up for the Nittany Lions as Long Beach State went on a 3-0 run due to errors by Kowal and Kerr to take a 4-1 lead. This run ended when Owen Rose earned a kill for the Nittany Lions and Siapanis committed an attack error to decrease Long Beach State’s lead to one. Long Beach State kept responding as it killed off Penn State’s momentum by winning five of the next six points, which led the Nittany Lions to take a timeout.

Coming out of the timeout, the Nittany Lions responded by going on a 3-0 run, which consisted of two kills by Kerr and Kowal along with an ace by Valenzi. After that, Long Beach State killed off Penn State’s momentum by going on a 4-0 run, which consisted of three errors by the Nittany Lions and an ace by Simon Torwie. This run ended when Torwie committed a service error to cut Long Beach State’s lead to five.

After both teams exchanged scores with Penn State and Long Beach State scoring off kills and errors, Long Beach State kept building its momentum as it scored two kills and an attack error to increase its lead to seven. After Godbold committed a service error which decreased Long Beach State’s lead to six, Penn State struggled to keep up with Long Beach State as it scored five straight points, which increased its lead to 11. The Nittany Lions responded by scoring the next two points from a kill by Rose and an attack error by Siapanis to decrease Long Beach State’s lead to nine.

Penn State’s comeback in the second set ended when Long Beach State scored three of the next four points to win the second set 25-14 after a kill by Siapanis.

The third set got underway with an attack error by Godbold to give the Nittany Lions the first point of the set. Both teams exchanged scores for seven straight points, which consisted of five kills and two errors to tie the third set at four points each. However, Long Beach State went on a 3-1 run to take a 7-5 lead. After an attack error by Godbold, the third set stayed tight as both teams went on 2-0 runs, and Penn State’s run was highlighted with two kills by Kerr. Long Beach State increased its lead to two after a kill by Siapanis, but the Nittany Lions responded by earning two straight kills by Ezenou and Luke Snyder to tie the set at 10-10.

Both teams went back and forth for three straight points, but Penn State took its first lead of the set when Kerr earned a kill off an assist by Snyders. The lead was short-lived as Long Beach State scored two straight points to take back the lead. After Long Beach State committed a service error to tie the game at 14-14, it responded by winning the next two points via to a kill by Varga and an ace by Nathan Harlan.

The set stayed very tight as neither team pulled away. Penn State scored three of the next four points, which tied the set at 17-17 and led Long Beach State to take a timeout. After the timeout, Long Beach State recorded two straight kills, but Penn State showed its resilience by going on a 3-0 run to take back the lead. This was highlighted by an ace by Ezeonu and a kill by Kerr, which forced Long Beach State to take another timeout.

After the timeout, Long Beach State tied up the set again at 20-20 off a kill by Varga. Kerr recorded a kill and an attack error by Varga gave the Nittany Lions a 22-20 lead. However, Long Beach State did not let the Nittany Lions pull away in the third set, as it recorded two straight kills to tie the set again. After both teams exchanged the next two points, the Nittany Lions earned their first set point when Rose recorded a huge kill for the team. However, the Nittany Lions could not take advantage of the set point as Matt Cosgrove committed a service error to tie the set at 24-24.

The Nittany Lions got another opportunity to win the set when Kerr recorded another kill. This time, Penn State took advantage of its second set point opportunity as Long Beach State’s Siapanis committed an attack error and Penn State went on to win the third set 26-24.

The fourth set started with both teams exchanging the first four points of the set. After the set was tied at 2-2, Long Beach State went on a 3-0 run as Ezeonu and Snyder committed errors, and a kill was recorded by Siapanis. The lead stayed intact for Long Beach State for the next four points as both teams went back and forth. Long Beach State increased its lead to four after Godbold recorded a kill.

After Long Beach State increased the lead to 10-5, the Nittany Lions showed a lot of resilience as they scored four straight points due to two errors, a kill by Valenzi, and an ace by Kerr to decrease Long Beach State’s lead to one. However, Long Beach State ended the momentum for Penn State by going on a 3-0 run, which increased its lead to four and forced the Nittany Lions to take a timeout.

Out of the timeout, Long Beach State recorded another kill and extended its lead to five. The run ended when Kerr recorded a kill for the Nittany Lions. After both teams exchanged the next two points, Penn State committed two consecutive errors as Long Beach State increased its lead to six. Both teams traded off consecutive kills, but Long Beach State made the score 19-12 as the finish line was very close.

After Penn State took a timeout, iot couldn’t stop Long Beach State’s momentum as it increased its lead to nine. Long Beach State’s run ended when Kerr recorded another kill for the Nittany Lions. However, Long Beach State kept its foot on the gas as it went on to score three straight points to make the score 24-13. The Nittany Lions saved the first match point due to a kill by Valenzi, but Long Beach State closed out the fourth set 25-14 off a service error by Rose.

Takeaways

• Penn State’s hitting woes were very persistent in this game. It had a hitting percentage of .132 compared to Long Beach State’s .340. John Kerr had the highest hitting percentage for the Nittany Lions with a .450.
• Blocks and aces played a huge factor in this game, as Long State Beach recorded 15 blocks compared to Penn State’s 3 blocks. Also, Long Beach State had 12 aces compared to Penn State’s four.
• Everyone on the Nittany Lions except Kerr struggled, as he was the only one to average more than 10 points in the game. Kerr averaged 19.5 points, and the two players closest to him were Rose and Ezeonu with six points.

What’s Next?

Penn State will try to rebound from this loss as it continues its road trip in California at 9 p.m. on Tuesday, March 5, against CSUN.