The second-ranked Long Beach State men’s volleyball team will seek its first NCAA tournament appearance since 2008 when it starts the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament this weekend.
The 49ers (22-7, 18-6 MPSF) will begin the tournament by hosting No. 6 Stanford on Saturday night. Head coach Alan Knipe said he and his team are eager to begin postseason play and make a run at a national championship.
“This is what you get ready for,” Knipe said. “This is what the 7 a.m. mornings are about in the Fall – trying to get better to the point that when you’re in a single elimination tournament against another quality team, that you can really dig in as seven guys on the court.”
The ‘Niners will look to repeat their last performance against Stanford, when they won in five games at Maples Pavilion.
While LBSU will need strong production from top hitters like juniors Dalton Ammerman and Taylor Crabb, a collective team approach on the court will be at least as important.
“We’ve got to believe in how we do this game, play it how we play,” Knipe said. “Of course, we’re going to want to exploit some weaknesses, but let’s test how good we got.”
The 2013 season has come with plenty of ups and downs. In early February, Knipe and his ‘Niners traveled to Provo, Utah where they took down the top-ranked BYU Cougars in five games. Later on in the season, BYU came to The Beach and evened the season series by routing the 49ers in a 3-0 sweep.
The 49ers rebounded after the loss to BYU by going on a five-game win streak to finish the regular season.
“It wasn’t always perfect. It’s been an upward climb, but for the most part we’ve been getting better all year long, and I think we got better this past week,” Knipe said. “We’ll get into the gym and try to get a little bit better this week.”
The MPSF is arguably the most competitive volleyball conference in the nation. In the last five years, all of the men’s volleyball national titles have been from teams in the MPSF. Winning an MPSF title also has some positive implications, as the last three teams that won the MPSF tournament went on to win the NCAA title.
However, looking past Stanford is not something Knipe is about to let his team do.
“It doesn’t matter what the matchups are, whether it be Stanford and us, Santa Barbara’s playing Irvine, UCLA and Pepperdine,” he said. “If you get caught up looking too far ahead, you’ll be regretting the way you prepared for the match.”
For now, Knipe and the ‘Niners will be narrowing their focus as they prepare for Stanford.
Overall, LBSU will look to play up to it’s potential, leaving every ounce of energy on the court in the process.
“All year long we said, ‘How good can we get? How far can we go?'” Knipe said. “Now, we go into a single elimination tournament, and we’re going to really test where we’re at. I look forward to it, and I know our guys do too.”
The 49ers and Cardinal will face off at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Walter Pyramid.