Primary ranked Lengthy Seaside State hosted the quantity three UCLA Bruins in entrance of a sold-out Walter Pyramid on Friday evening. 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 stable protection. The Seaside serving and passing in the end had 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 had been proper there with them or beat them in lots of classes. It in the end got here all the way down to the serve and go sport. Sadly, we misplaced that battle. Moni Nikolov went on some service runs that made a giant distinction,” stated 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 profitable in 4 units. The Bruins at the moment are led by Coach John Hawks, who over a decade in the past was a former assistant coach underneath Alan Knipe at Lengthy Seaside State. Each packages have had the previous USA males’s nationwide crew head coaches in John Speraw and Alan Knipe. Many males’s volleyball followers like to debate who’s the higher setter, the Lengthy Seaside 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 provide Seaside the 7-4 lead. They used that momentum and obtained nice contribution from all their pin hitters to manage a lot 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 offer offense for UCLA within the second set and outdoors Zach Rama had some well timed kills. All through the set the Bruins had management and finally gained the set.
The balanced offense and continued service stress from Lengthy Seaside 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 Seaside. Varga completed with 12 kills and hit .333. Hershtynovich added 10 kills and Siapanis chipped in eight kills whereas hitting .583. Nikolov did a wonderful job evenly dishing the rock with 35 help and had seven of the Lengthy Seaside State 9 aces. Coach Knipe was capable of focus on the depth of his crew’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 now have high quality attackers in each place, and we really feel we now have some stable depth at every place. We stay up for 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 loads of issues we might be higher at, however I really like the development of this squad.” Coach Knipe did agree with Hawks that the first distinction was the serve and go sport. “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 offered a remaining 4 like really feel with a sold-out crowd, Lengthy Seaside State marching band taking part in within the stands, an brisk scholar part in pink wigs and dressed as sizzling canine. Throughout timeouts and breaks in the course of the match a DJ was blast beats so as to add to the joy. “The pyramid is a particular place and much more so when it’s packed! We actually admire all of the help from the scholars and LB nation. These matches between these two groups have turn out to be an annual occasion and tonight’s match didn’t disappoint,” stated Coach Knipe.
UCLA was led by pin hitters Zach Rama with 15 kills and Cooper Robinson added 10. Decker began the match pink sizzling with six kills in set one and completed the evening with a complete of 9. When the Bruins had 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 evening 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 wanting ahead to the to battle Lengthy Seaside in Pauley Pavillion in a couple of days. We can have our residence crowd and we will likely be prepared,” stated Coach Hawks.
Kevin Pratte has enthusiastically been concerned in volleyball for over 23 years. Pratte began taking part in in center college and was lucky sufficient to play NCAA Division 1 volleyball at The College of the Pacific. After his taking part in profession Pratte obtained concerned in teaching volleyball. In 2009 Pratte was the graduate assistant coach for the College of Nebraska girls’s volleyball program. Later in his profession Pratte made teaching stops at College of the Pacific, a number of group faculties and coached at WAVE Volleyball Membership for seven years. At the moment Pratte is a bodily schooling trainer within the San Diego Unified College District, San Diego Downtown Breakfast Rotary member, a school 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 provide 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
