NCAA Men's Volleyball Results
May 5, 2016 Host: Penn State (Rec Hall)
University Park, PA
May 3-7, 2016
NCAA Championship Central
Thursday, May 5
NCAA Semifinal: No. 1 BYU 3, No. 4 Long Beach State 1
Recap by BYU Sports Information:
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Brenden Sander led No. 1 seed BYU men's volleyball past No. 4 seed Long Beach State in four sets (25-21, 23-25, 25-19, 25-18) Thursday night at Penn State's Rec Hall to advance to the national championship match.
"I just want to say hats off to Long Beach State," BYU head coach Shawn Olmstead said. "I anticipated a great match and it was. They're a well-coached team. They pushed our players. It was a fun match to be a part of. I was happy with our boys' composure after losing that second set and going into the third. We made some really good decisions from there."
Sander led the Cougars with 14 kills and no attack errors to hit on a .583 clip. Ben Patch quietly put together a 13 kill night, and Michael Hatch contributed five blocks. Leo Durkin set the offense with 42 assists while Erik Sikes chipped in a team-high eight digs.
BYU (27-3) and Long Beach State (26-7) each collected points on a handful of service errors with the score tied 6-6 at the beginning of the first set. A Price Jarman dump kill gave the Cougars the 12-11 edge, and a 49er attack error gave BYU a 15-13 lead at the first timeout. A Hatch and Sander block ended a lengthy rally that put the Cougars ahead 18-15. The teams traded points from there as a Robbie Sutton ace extended BYU's advantage to four points, 23-19. A Jarman kill gave the Cougars set point and a Sander kill ended the set 25-21 for BYU.
A kill and block from Hatch gave the Cougars a 2-0 edge early in the second set. Long Beach State responded with a 4-1 run to go on top 4-3 with an ace. Sander collected an overpass kill to help BYU retake the advantage at 11-10 and a 49er attack error extended the lead to three at 15-12. Long Beach State quickly countered with another 4-1 run to knot the score up at 16 apiece. It remained neck-to-neck from there, as back-to-back blocks gave the Cougars a 20-19 edge. With the set tied at 23-all, the 49ers scored the next two points to take the close set 25-23.
BYU jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the third set, capped off by a Sander ace. Long Beach State came back within two, down 6-4, but three-consecutive 49er attack errors gave the Cougars a 9-4 lead. BYU maintained its lead at 14-8 after a Long Beach State service error, but a 3-1 49er rally brought them back within three at 17-14. A Jake Langlois kill gave the Cougars a 20-15 advantage and forced a Long Beach State timeout. BYU stayed ahead to the end of the set, picking up a 25-19 win from a Langlois ace.
The fourth set began with the Cougars taking a 4-1 lead following another block from Hatch and Langlois. BYU struggled after a timeout, allowing the 49ers to go ahead for the first time in the set, 6-5. The Cougars eventually turned things around, as consecutive Langlois aces put his team back ahead 12-7. Long Beach State took its final timeout of the set as BYU extended its lead to seven at 17-10. BYU maintained its large lead from there, taking the set and match 25-18 on a Patch kill.
The Cougars return to action at Rec Hall Saturday, May 7, at 8 p.m. EDT and will face No. 3 seed Ohio State. The match will be broadcast live on ESPN2 as well as BYU Radio - Sirius XM 143. Links to live stats and video/audio feeds can be found on the BYU men's volleyball schedule page.ââ'¬â€¹
Tuesday, May 3
NCAA Play-In # 1: Long Beach State 3, Erskine 0
Recap by Long Beach State Sports Information:
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The fourth-ranked and fourth-seeded Long Beach State men's volleyball team swept No. 5 seed Erskine, 25-14, 27-25, 25-20, in an NCAA play-in match Tuesday evening at Penn State's Rec Hall.
The Beach (25-7) advances to Thursday's NCAA semifinals where it is set to face No. 1 BYU. It will be the 49ers' eighth final four appearance and first since 2008.
"We needed to win this match and I thought our guys did some really good things tonight," head coach Alan Knipe said. "Our guys also showed a lot of maturity in how they handled getting ready for the match.
"A lot of credit goes to Erskine," Knipe added. "We got a lopsided win in the first set and they came back and showed their character and pride. I thought it was good to get that close-set feeling because that can always help in a tournament like this. Overall, offensively we hit a pretty big number which made it a little bit easier for us. We could have probably done a better job with our floor defense which is something we pride ourselves on and we'd like to be better serving than we were tonight when we play on Thursday."
LBSU hit a season-best .528 in tonight's victory, committing only seven attack errors on 72 attempts. That mark is also a Long Beach State NCAA Tournament single-match record.
Freshman TJ DeFalco led the way with 14 kills (.619) and four blocks. Classmate Kyle Ensing added 11 kills and eight digs, while junior Eric Ensing finished with eight kills and no errors on 13 swings for a .615 clip. Senior Taylor Gregory contributed five kills and freshman Josh Tuaniga dished out 40 assists. Junior Andrew Sato chipped in five digs.
Long Beach State raced out to a 4-1 lead in the first set. Erskine would close the gap to one and kept it close until the Beach opened up a 15-7 advantage at the media timeout. The 49ers continued on a 14-5 run to pull ahead, 21-10. LBSU cruised the rest of the way with a Gregory kill eventually ending it at 25-14.
The second frame was much more competitive with 18 ties and seven lead changes. The Flying Fleet scored the first point for their first lead of the night, but Long Beach State accounted for the next four. The Beach then went up 6-3 before Erskine answered with a 5-1 spurt to go on top, 8-7. It would go back-and-forth from there as neither team led by more than one until a DeFalco kill and a Flying Fleet hitting error gave LBSU a 21-19 edge. The 49ers continued to side out until Erskine tied it up at 23-23. Long Beach State responded with a kill from Eric Ensing, and after the Flying Fleet held off three set points, an attack error gave the Beach a 27-25 win.
It was another tightly contested game early in set three with seven ties before the Beach took the lead for good at 12-11 on another kill from Eric Ensing. Erskine stayed within two before a 5-1 spurt put LBSU up, 21-15. DeFalco sparked the rally with two solo blocks and a kill. The Flying Fleet made a mini run late in the match but the 49ers closed it out at 25-20.
Erskine (20-7) hit just .183 on the night. Mike Michelau and Roberto Perez Vargas led the way with 14 and 11 kills, respectively. The Flying Fleet advanced to the NCAA play-in match by winning the Conference Carolinas Tournament. It was their second NCAA appearance in three years.
Long Beach State moves on to the NCAA semifinals where it will face No. 1 BYU on Thursday, May 5. First serve is set for 6 p.m. (ET)/3 p.m. (PT) at Rec Hall.
NOTES: Long Beach State advances to its eighth NCAA semifinal in program history and first since 2008 ... In their seven previous appearances, the Beach moved on to the national championship match six times with one title coming in 1991 ... LBSU hit a season-high .528, which is also a program NCAA Tournament single-match record ... In addition, TJ DeFalco's two solo blocks tied for third in the 49ers' NCAA single-match record books ... He matched head coach Alan Knipe's two solo stuffs from the 1991 finals ... Long Beach State's 25 wins are the fifth-most in program history ... The Beach improved to 3-0 at Penn State's Rec Hall this year.