With a match-leading and season-high 24 kills in Long Beach State's five-set victory over Hawaii on January 18, Kyle Ensing earned the FloVolleyball Player of the Week honor.

Then-No. 7 Long Beach State was down 0-2 heading into the mid-match break versus eighth-ranked Hawaii, but the 49ers, led by Ensing, rallied in the remaining three sets to hand the Rainbow Warriors their first loss of the season.


Ensing added 10 digs to the final stat line, notching his first double-double of the season.

"Kyle was an enormous part of our success as the match went on," LBSU head coach Alan Knipe said after the first Hawaii match. "He was a handful from the front row and the back. He has the ability to play like King Kong, and he looked like it in the last three sets. I was impressed with his performance but not surprised."

Two nights later, the 49ers followed up the comeback victory with a sweep of Hawaii. Ensing led LBSU once again, putting away 11 kills with no attack errors and hitting .579.

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As a team, Long Beach committed only three attack errors in the 3-0 (25-19, 25-14, 25-18) victory to hit .534 to Hawaii's .191.

Ensing and the 49ers (6-1), who have risen to No. 5 in the rankings, will travel to Saint Francis (3-4) and top-ranked Ohio State (6-0) this week.

Previous FloVolleyball Players of the Week

January 16: Lucas Yoder, USC