For the second consecutive night a showdown with No. 1 ranked Long Beach State slipped away from the No. 3 ranked UCSB men’s volleyball team.
A near capacity crowd of 1, 378 packed into Rob Gymnasium determined to give the Gauchos the necessary boost to upset the defending national champions, but the visiting 49ers remained poised and made clutch plays at key moments to capture a 29-31, 31-29, 25-14, 26-24 victory on Friday night.
“This is the biggest crowd we’ve ever played in front of in Rob Gym. This is great for our sport,” said Long Beach State coach Alan Knipe. “Two really good teams, two tired teams tonight, that had huge heart and a lot of will, but maybe not as much legs as we had last night.”