LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA – Trinity Western beat Long Beach State 3-0 (25-20, 25-23, 25-23) on Monday.
The Spartans are rolling with a 5-1 record during the tour of California's finest men's volleyball programs.
Long Beach State finished the 2020-21 season with a 7-5 record to earn the eighth spot in last year's final NVA/AVCA Division I-II Men's Coaches Poll.
QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Ben Josephson
"An incredibly competitive game. Long Beach is no joke, these guys can really play ball and they were missing some key players. Getting a win off these guys is never easy in their gym. A storied program with one of the best coaches there is. You can see why this team is so good, they're so well coached and well-disciplined in the way they block, their offence is pure. This was a huge challenge for us.
"We didn't get any results on our serve, their receivers held up. What we did well was our sideout, and our offence. I didn't think we could stop them, but they couldn't stop us, making it a slugfest game of sideout ball. Neither team could get aces, neither team made blocks, it was just bump, set, spike the whole time. It was a really high level of offence on both sides. I know both coaches are probably talking to their team about upgrading on defence.
"This is the beauty of this section, now it's almost like a league game because we're going to go back, watch video, we're going to figure out how to get better for tomorrow, and go after it again. If we can keep siding out like that and add a better point scoring phase, I think we'll finish this tour on a great note.
"We're really pumped about our sideout phase and the way we killed the ball. We'd just love to be a little bit better in the backcourt tomorrow."
UP NEXT
The Spartans are set to rematch Long Beach State at 6 p.m. on Tuesday to wrap up their California tour.
SCHEDULE
Nov. 10 vs. Pepperdine – 3-2 W
SAC Tournament
Nov. 12 vs. UCSB – 3-0 W
Nov. 13 vs. USC – 3-1 L
Nov. 13 vs. UCLA – 3-0 W
Nov. 14 vs. Pepperdine – 3-1 W
Nov. 15 vs. Long Beach State – 3-0 W
Nov. 16 vs. Long Beach State – 6 p.m. (PT)
TWU'S ALL-TIME RECORD vs. NCAA DIV. I OPPONENTS
BYU – 2-2
Cal State Northridge – 1-1
George Mason – 0-1
Lewis – 2-2
Long Beach State – 4-1
Pacific – 3-1
Pepperdine – 5-4
Purdue Fort Wayne – 2-0
Stanford – 0-1
UC Irvine – 0-1
UCLA – 5-2
UC Santa Barbara – 2-2
USC – 2-2
About Spartan Athletics
As official members of U SPORTS, the Spartans currently compete in 13 sports in the Canada West conference, including women's and men's soccer, volleyball, basketball, hockey, cross country and track & field, as well as women's rugby sevens. TWU also competes as an independent team in men's rugby. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 12 U SPORTS team championships and 29 Canada West team championships.
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