Long Beach State @ UCLA 1-19-19 MVB

Dear Readers~


As many of you know, December 15, 2018 was the national finals at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota for the NCAA women's indoor volleyball and the first AVP event of 2019 doesn't start until May 3rd so you're probably wondering what I'll be blogging about now. Well I'm glad you asked because the spring has 2 types of NCAA volleyball going on. There's beach for the women, yes some NCAA women do both indoor in the fall and beach in the spring, and indoor for the men. The beach season doesn't start until February so today's blog is about men's indoor volleyball. The game I chose to talk about was Long Beach State taking on UCLA at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles. You're probably wondering why I chose  this as the first game of the men's indoor season to blog about. That's because the last time Long Beach State took on UCLA in men's volleyball the pressure was high simply because it was the national finals, also held at Pauley Pavilion, with Long Beach State beating UCLA on home soil 3 sets to 2 to become national champions.

They had their rematch at the Pauley Pavilion on Saturday, January 19, 2019 at 7pm Pacific Time. First set was a close one, ending 29-27 with Long Beach State winning the first set to start the rematch. The second set wasn't as close because it ended 25-22 with Long Beach State winning that second set as well. UCLA knew that if they lost this third set, their rematch would be over and they'd lose in 3 straight sets. Both teams played really hard but in the end, the set ended 25-17 with Long Beach State winning the third and final set of the game.

Now time for the top athlete in each category during the game. The athlete with the most kills was Long Beach State's TJ DeFalco, with 13, followed shortly by UCLA's Brandon Rattray, with 10. The athlete with the most aces goes to UCLA's Micah Ma'a, with 4, while Long Beach State had a 3 way tie with Kyle Ensing, Josh Tuaniga, and TJ DeFalco each having 1 ace. The blocking category had a 3 way tie for each team. Long Beach State had 3 people with 5 blocks each and they include TJ DeFalco, Simon Andersen, and Nick Amado, while UCLA had 3 people with 1 block each and they include Micah Ma'a, Daenan Gyimah, and Austin Matautia. The athlete with the most digs was UCLA's Micah Ma'a, with 8, while Josh Tuaniga led Long Beach State with 6.

I hope you enjoyed my first summary of men's indoor volleyball with UCLA hosting Long Beach State. UCLA will next play UC San Diego in San Diego on Friday, January 25th at 7 PM Pacific Time while Long Beach State will play USC on Friday, January 25th at 7PM Pacific Time in Long Beach. Both games are at the same time and on the same day but only Long Beach State gets home court advantage while UCLA has to travel.

I hope you liked my first blog of the 2019 men's indoor volleyball season. Remember that NCAA beach volleyball starts in February and the AVP's first stop of 2019 is Huntington Beach, California on May 3rd. Don't forget to check out some of my other blogs and until next time, Miller out


~J. Miller