Vikings Men’s Volleyball defeated the Irvine Valley College Lasers 3-0 at the Feb. 21 evening home game.
The first set began with Willy Wang making the first serve for Long Beach with a kill from Alden Jacobs, giving the first point immediately to the Vikings.
In total, Jacobs made six out of 14 of Long Beach’s kills from the first set, and made four more throughout the rest of the game for a total of ten.
The first set ended with a close winning score of 25-23, with the final kill being made by Sebastian Kim, who made four other kills in the first set.
The second set saw one less kill but ended with the widest score gap of the three sets at 25-17.
The third and final set ended with a score of 25-18, ending the game.
Five kills in this set were scored by newcomers, two by Jared Preciado and three by Josiah Dawson.
Freshman and transfers make up the majority of this season’s team, with Coach Joshua Nehls and outside hitter Sergio Garcia mentioning that the current roster features only two returning players.
Garcia also expressed that the team felt “blessed” to have both Jared and Josiah on the team.
Only one returning player, Willy Wang, was part of this game’s lineup.
The win from this game improves Men’s Volleyball’s overall record to an even 4-4.
Jacobs referred to the IVC Lasers as a “key opponent,” and hopes to carry the success of this game forward into the season.
“We need some momentum going into league,” Jacobs said in an interview.
Garcia hopes games will help build the team’s confidence for later on in the season.
“We’re slowly putting our pieces together,” Garcia said about the improvement.
In an interview, Coach Nehls said that there are a handful of personal improvements to be made, but that he believes the team is well on track to improving.