LONG BEACH, Calif. – George Mason University's men's volleyball team was completely neutralized offensively by one of the best teams in the nation and dropped its first match in the Active Ankle Classic in straight sets to host Long Beach State.

Despite a positive start in which it matched the efforts of the No. 2 team in the nation, Mason (7-10) lost the first two sets by double-digit margins. The Patriots took all five of their leads in the match early in the third set with four of them coming off attack or service errors on LBSU's (18-2) part. Mason trailed by six in the latter stages of what turned out to be the final set, but did not go down without a fight – the Patriots managed to cut the lead in half and crossed the 20-point mark for the first time in the match before LBSU eventually completed the sweep by winning the set with a four-point margin.

"Long Beach is No. 2 in the nation for a reason," Mason head coach and California native Jay Hosack said. "We are struggling in finding a steady lineup that can produce consistently. [LBSU] exploited our younger guys and handled our serve better than we handled theirs."

MATCH NOTES

-Mason was held to negative hitting in each of the three sets for an overall attack efficiency of -.149, the Patriots' lowest this season. Freshman outside hitter Bradley Creamer (.067 hitting) was most efficient among those with double-digit swings and that resulted in team-high seven kills, which tied his career-high for second-straight match.

-Junior setter Brian Negron hit 1.000 by turning both of his tips into kills, but he was kept quiet in his primary duties. Despite being featured in all but 11 plays in the contest, Negron racked up only 11 assists, which is the least in his career when playing in three or more sets.

-Long Beach State's aggressive attack hit .394 on the night and made it extremely difficult for Mason to keep the ball alive on the defensive end. Nevertheless, that was the statistic category in which Mason came closest to its opponent, which had only three digs more, 18-15. Sophomore outside hitter Kyle Barnes and senior libero Johnny Gomez finished with team-high four digs for the Patriots.

-Despite Fort Wayne's nearly perfect performance, none of the Mastodons reached double digits in attack. They were led by Pelegrin Vargas with nine kills. After a balanced effort in every compartment, Fort Wayne had six players with at least four kills, five players with at least four digs, four players with at least four blocks, and three players than setter Michael Keegan (28 assists, 4 kills, 4 digs) with at least one assist.

-Long Beach State's All-American TJ DeFalco was everywhere on the court, contributing match-high 10 kills, six digs, three blocks, two assists and a service ace. Kyle Ensing tied DeFalco with 10 kills for most in the match, doing so with a greater efficiency, hitting .500.

-Advantages in match kills (37-17), assists (35-16), service aces (5-1) and team blocks (10-4) all went to LBSU. Mason, however, had three times the solo blocks that the second-best team in the country did (3-1, two by Creamer) and erred three times less from the service line, 18-6.

NEXT ON THE COURT

The Patriots continue their participation in the tournament against Cal State Northridge at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday.