BYU knocks Long Beach State out of NCAA semifinals

Long Beach State’s goal was to end the men’s volleyball season in University Park, Pa. at the NCAA national championships. The 49ers made that dream a reality. They also lost two matches earlier than they’d wanted, as a talented young roster came up short against the top-ranked team in the nation on Thursday. Long Beach State battled with No. 1 BYU but fell short, 25-21, 23-25, 25-19, 25-18.

The loss for the 49ers (25-8) came in their first NCAA Final Four since 2008.

“When I think of the jouey our team has been on from the begiing of the year, I can’t be anything other than incredibly proud of the growth, individually and collectively,” said head coach Alan Knipe at the postmatch press conference. “We’re incredibly proud to have been here. This is exactly where we wanted to be, and we like where we’re going. We would have liked to play a little better tonight, but unfortunately that didn’t happen.”

The loss is likely to cause some sleepless nights as the 49ers let a great chance to upset the Cougars slip away. Long Beach State had eight team blocks and 55 kills on the night to BYU’s 46, but had its most mistake-ridden effort of the season, with 25 hitting errors and 19 service errors.

All told, the 49ers averaged 11 service or hitting errors per set, with many of the hitting errors coming on good sets and not against a heavy block. But the 49ers simply missed more swings than usual.

The first set showed how tightly matched the two teams are, as they were tied on 12 of the first 13 points before BYU pulled away to take a 15-13 lead that they ended up holding that margin for the rest of the set. In the second set, the teams were tied at 22 before Long Beach pulled away, and thanks to a service error, a kill from Kyle Ensing, and an overpass smash by Bja Huus.

But with the match tied at one set apiece, BYU’s experience came through, as the 49ers killed their own momentum with bad serves or swings, while BYU stayed in system and put the ball away.

Long Beach State was led by its freshman trio of TJ DeFalco, Ensing, and setter Josh Tuaniga. DeFalco had a match-high 23 kills but also had nine hitting errors and seven service errors, while Ensing came on strong late and had 10 kills, 11 digs and four blocks. Tuaniga had 45 assists.

Long Beach State’s lone graduating starter will be fifth-year senior Taylor Gregory, an All-American who notched his 500th career block in the loss to BYU, good for fifth in school history.

The Cougars (27-3) were led by 14 kills from Brenden Sander and 13 kills from Ben Patch. BYU will face Ohio State in the national championship match after the Buckeyes won a marathon five-set thriller against UCLA in the other semifinal. The championship match will be Saturday at 6 p.m. and will be streamed live on NCAA.com.

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