LA JOLLA, Calif. — The 10th-ranked UC San Diego men's volleyball team got a huge monkey off its back Saturday night by upsetting No. 2 Long Beach State for the Tritons' first win against the Beach in just over 10 years.

Scores of the five-set Big West Conference match in front of 888 loud and engaged fans at RIMAC Arena were 16-25, 25-19, 25-20, 21-25, and 15-12. 

The victory moved the Tritons to 13-9 overall and 5-4 in Big West play. The Beach, which had won the previous 17 meetings between the two squads including a sweep in Long Beach Friday night, dropped to 17-4 and 6-2.

The last time UC San Diego had bested Long Beach State was on March 15, 2012. That was also a five-setter but at Walter Pyramid in Los Angeles County.

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HOW IT HAPPENED
After hitting a paltry .107 in the opening set, UC San Diego found its offensive groove and hit .394 over the remaining four sets. The Tritons found that groove quickly, swinging at a .480 clip in the second set. They finished even stronger in the fifth set, putting down 10 kills with just three errors in 14 attack attempts, good for a .500 hitting percentage. Overall, they hit .331 (64-22-127) on the night.

Individually, three Tritons posted a double-figure kill total including outsides Kyle McCauley (match-high 17) and Ryan Ka (14) as well as middle Shane Benetz (12). McCauley matched his career-high with five service aces while Benetz hit .556 and racked up eight blocks (three solos), one short of his career-best. Adding to UC San Diego's potency in the middle, Logan Clark hit .800 with nine kills and a lone error in 10 swings. That number matched his career-high, set in February of 2021 against Hawaii.

Coordinating the Triton offense was setter Blake Crisp, who had 38 assists as well as a match-high nine digs.

Long Beach State, which had its seven-match win streak snapped, hit .300 or better in sets one and four, but finished at .276 (53-19-123) for the match. The Beach held a 13-9 advantage in blocks. Alex Nikolov had 17 kills, a career-high six aces, and eight digs. Spencer Olivier finished with 16 kills while Clarke Godbold logged 11 kills and Simon Torwie had eight blocks. 

In the fifth set, LBSU got out to a 6-3 lead. Trailing 7-5, UC San Diego scored three straight points to take the lead and the Tritons would not get behind again. Even at 11-11, UC San Diego won four of the final five points to ice the victory. Following a Beach service error, Ka had back-to-back kills and Clark put down a kill to end it. Harrison picked up two assists and libero Matt Palma had the other during the winning run.

In that final frame, Benetz totaled four kills while Ka and McCauley had two each and Clark and Crisp both had one.

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HIGHLIGHT REEL



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KEVIN RING INTERVIEW



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TRITON TIDBITS
• It was the 11th time this season that UC San Diego hit at least .300.
• It was the seventh five-set match for the Tritons in 2022.
• The Tritons' seven aces were their most since March 9 when they had eight at Concordia.
• UC San Diego's 59 total assists put the team over 1,000 for the season.
• Kyle McCauley finished with 23.5 points, the eighth time this season he has eclipsed the 20-point mark.

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UP NEXT
UC San Diego wraps up its regular season on Saturday, April 16, when it hosts No. 5 UC Santa Barbara. Start time is 7 p.m. and tickets can be purchased here.

The Big West Championship tournament is set for April 21-23 in Honolulu with all six conference teams competing for the league's automatic berth in the NCAA Championship.

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About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of the Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 84 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.