The No. 8-ranked Long Beach State men’s volleyball team clinched the sixth spot in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation after beating No. 6 Pepperdine Saturday night.
The ‘Niners (15-14, 10-12 MPSF) took out Pepperdine in four sets – 25-14, 25-22, 21-25, 25-23 – in a dominating defensive effort. LBSU out-blocked the Waves 17-5 on the night.
Senior Brad Hemmerling led the Beach with 17 kills on a dominating .536 hitting percentage along with two aces and seven digs. Junior Colten Echave added 10 kills and nine blocks in the key victory for the Beach.
LBSU started the match off strong by going to the middle constantly. Echave and sophomore Jeff Ornee combined for eight of the ‘Niners 18 kills in the first set.
LBSU was virtually untouchable on the offensive side of the ball by putting up 18 kills on .621 hitting percentage.
After the ‘Niners opened up the first set on an 8-1 run Pepperdine was not able to come up with an answer. The Waves struggled to get things going committing six errors, half of which came from freshman Josh Taylor.
LBSU caught another early lead in the second set after Hemmerling got back-to-back aces to put LBSU up 5-4.
Pepperdine began putting things together when they went on a five-point run to go up 15-10. It looked like the Waves were recovering after their slow start, but LBSU had other plans.
Back-to-back triple blocks fired up LBSU to answer with its own five-point run.
Hitting errors killed the Waves in the second set when Pepperdine helped LBSU to close the set with a four-point run on three attack errors. The Waves committed nine errors in the second set – five of those errors came on LBSU blocks.
11 tie scores made up the third set. Both teams traded points deep into the third set.
Pepperdine scored two quick points and head coach Andy Read called a key timeout to regroup an ailing LBSU team.
The ‘Niners came out of the gates firing with back-to-back blocks that prompted a Pepperdine timeout.
The Waves would refuse to be swept ending the set with a five-point run on four LBSU attack errors.
The tides were changing in Pepperdine’s favors after the Waves came out in the fourth set going up 8-3.
Read saw fit to take out Senior Srdjan Nadazdin for fellow senior Jim Baughman as Baughman had been leading the ‘Niners in kills the entire season till an injury had sidelined him the past couple of months.
After LBSU dropped to 7-14 Baughman began to shine.
Out of a LBSU timeout Baughman cranked out a huge kill followed by a block with Echave to put LBSU on a mini-run.
LBSU started showing life and got a key kill by Taylor Crabb from Baughman to cut the Pepperdine lead to one.
The most impressive display of defensive prowess came next. LBSU was down 20-22 when Hemmerling got his 16th and final kill of the night. The kill sparked back-to-back-to-back blocks that put LBSU up by two, 24-22.
Baughman smashed the match point in poetic fashion, propelling LBSU to Provo putting the team again on his back.
LBSU’s win means it will travel to Provo, Utah to face No. 4 BYU in the first round of the MPSF Tournament. BYU is one of two teams in the top 5 that the ‘Niners have defeated this season. Saturday’s match up is set for a 6 p.m. starting time.