No. 19 Princeton to Face No. 1 Long Beach State

No. 19 Princeton to Face No. 1 Long Beach State

Princeton vs. Long Beach State
Saturday, March 15 | Long Beach, Ca.
7:00 PM PT | 10:00 PM ET
Live Results | ESPN+

LONG BEACH, CA. – Closing out its spring-break California travels, the Princeton men's volleyball team will head to Long Beach for a matchup against no. 1 ranked Long Beach State on Saturday. The first serve is scheduled for 7 p.m. PT / 10 p.m. ET in the Walter Pyramid.

About the Tigers

Princeton enters Saturday after dropping two contests to #13 UC San Diego and #7 CSUN on Monday and Wednesday this week, falling to UCSD 3-1 (25-19, 23-25, 14-25, 19-25) and to CSUN 3-1 (27-29, 24-26, 25-22, 20-25).
Against CSUN, senior Nyherowo Omene hammered down an impressive 26 kills on the night, with just four errors on 34 attempts for a hitting percentage of .647. The performance was just one off from his career-high 27 kills, which he achieved against Charleston earlier this season.
Freshman Mason Rice led the Tigers against UCSD with 18 kills combined with six errors on 35 attempts for a solid .343 hitting percentage.
Fellow senior Henry Wedbush led Princeton in assist across both games for a combined 73.
Princeton entered the top-20 in the latest AVCA poll, tied for no. 19 with Penn State. Princeton currently leads the EIVA standings with a 3-1 conference record.
Omene leads the EIVA in kills per set, averaging 4.15. He also comes in at third in service aces, with 0.38 per set.
Omene leads the EIVA and is seventh in the nation in career service aces (active) with 117 total. Omene has also become a career leader in kills, currently ranking 8th nationally in division I with 904 total.
Fellow senior Henry Wedbush leads the Tigers in assists with 434 on the season and 9.04 per set, which is good enough for fourth in the EIVA.
Rice has had a strong start to his collegiate career, currently averaging 3.20 kills per set which puts him at fifth in the league.
Roan Alviar leads Princeton in digs, averaging 1.71 per set with 87. He now ranks sixth in the EIVA.
The Tigers were picked to finish fourth in the EIVA preseason standings.
Omene and Wedbush were named to the 2025 EIVA Players to Watch list. Both seniors were named to the All-EIVA First Team at the conclusion of last season.
Joining the Tiger squad this year are five newcomers in the class of 2025, including Alviar, Ambrose Engling, Rice, Kevin Yang and Ethan Wells. First-years Alviar and Engling were named to the 2025 VolleyballMag Boys Fab 50 list.
Princeton ended the 2024 season with a trip to the EIVA quarterfinals and an AVCA ranking of 18 in the final coaches' poll. The Tigers went 12-12 overall and 5-5 in conference play.
Sophomore captain Tristan Whitfield was named the 2024 EIVA Freshman of the Year. Now in his sophomore season, Whitfield led the EIVA in blocks last year with 80.0 while also recording 23 digs, 65 kills (1.08 per set), and six service aces.
The Tigers are led by Sam Shweisky, who has coached the Tigers to 2 EIVA Championships and 6 EIVA Finals. Shweisky is in his 16th year as head coach of the Princeton men's volleyball program, and he is assisted by Joe Norton in his second year.

About #1 Long Beach

The Beach enters the weekend 16-0 on the season, ranked No. 1 in the AVCA National Collegiate Men's Volleyball Poll for eight consecutive weeks.
Skyler Varga currently leads The Beach with 3.12 kills per set.
Setter Moni Nikolov has a total of 497 assists this season with 9.56 per set. He also leads the nation currently with 1.058 aces per set.
DiAeris McRaven leads Long Beach defensively with 38.0 blocks this season for 0.95 per set.
The Beach holds the 3-0 advantage all-time against Princeton, last sweeping the Tigers on the road in 2018.

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Players Mentioned

Roan Alviar

Ambrose Engling

Nyherowo Omene

Mason Rice

Henry Wedbush

Ethan Wells

Tristan Whitfield

Kevin Yang