<\/p>\n
Report by LBSU<\/span><\/p>\n The sixth-ranked Long Beach State men\u2019s volleyball team handed No. 12 Loyola-Chicago its first loss of the season with a 27-30, 30-26, 30-20, 31-29 non-conference victory Tuesday evening at the Walter Pyramid. Jim Baughman led a balanced 49er attack with a career-high 23 kills. Tommy Pestolesi added a double-double with 20 kills and 12 digs, while hitting .500. Dan Alexander (14 kills), Dean Bittner (13 kills) and Antwain Aguillard (12 kills) also finished in double figures. Conor Eaton guided The Beach to an impressive .431 hitting percentage with 74 assists and Kirk Francis anchored the defense with a game-high 13 digs. In a tightly played first set, the two teams traded points until Loyola-Chicago went up 12-9. The 49ers stayed close and evened the game at 15-15 on a Bittner ace, but the Ramblers eventually used a 5-2 run to take its largest lead at 26-22. LUC led the rest of the way and took game one, 30-27, on an Alexander service error. LBSU hit .472 in the set, but Loyola topped that with a .560 hitting percentage. The Beach (10-7) pulled ahead midway through the second set to come away with a 30-26 victory, tying the match at one game apiece. The 49ers scored four unanswered points to take a 15-11 lead, but the Ramblers came back to cut the deficit to one at 18-17. LBSU then outscored the visitors, 11-7, to go up 29-24. Loyola was able to hold off two game points before a Pestolesi kill gave The Beach the win. Long Beach State took control in the third game, going up 11-7 on back-to-back aces by Pestolesi. The 49ers then used an 8-3 run, capped by a block from Bittner and Aguillard, to take a 19-12 lead. LBSU never looked back from there as Pestolesi ended the 30-20 third set victory with a kill. The Beach hit a blistering .500, while holding LUC to .107. The 49ers and Ramblers were neck-in-neck throughout the fourth set. LBSU eventually went up 28-26 on an Aguillard kill, but Loyola came back to tie the score at 28-28. After a Baughman kill, the visitors were able to hold off one match point before The Beach put the game away with another Baughman kill and an LUC hitting error. Loyola-Chicago (12-1) was led by Kris Berzins\u2019 16 kills. Mike Bunting chipped in 13 kills, while Mike Morice finished with 12 kills, while hitting .429. Long Beach State returns to the Walter Pyramid this weekend when it hosts the Active Ankle Classic, March 12-13. The 49ers open the four-team round robin tournament against St. Francis (PA) Friday at 7 p.m. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The 49ers proved they deserve to be ranked number six in the nation with an impressive four-set win over Loyola-Chicago, in which three Niners had more kills than team leader Dean Bittner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1848"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=1848"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}