Honolulu – The male volleyball teams of Long Beach and Hawaii clashed for another Big West tournament title on Saturday, but it may not be the last time they meet this spring.
Hawaii, the second seeded, was right for the LBSU, seeded on Saturday evening, offering the best classified team in the country a defeat of 25-21, 25-22, 21-25, 25-22 before a lively crowd close to the capacity at the Stan Sheriff Center. With the victory, the Rainbow Warriors (26-5) won the automatic conference place in the NCAA tournament next month, although the rivals are probably the first two heads when the support is revealed Sunday at 1 p.m. PT (ncaa.com).
If Long Beach and Hawaii meet for the fourth time this season, it would probably be on May 12 in Columbus, Ohio, with the national championship at stake. The champion of the regular season of the MPSF UCLA (20-6), which lost against Pepperdine in the semi-finals of the MPSF tournament on Friday evening, is probably the head of the NCAA. Miva Loyola-Chicago and the MPSF tournament champion Pepperdine, the champion of the fourth and fifth Miva, respectively.
The NCAA quarter-finals are Thursday, May 8, the semi-finals scheduled for Saturday May 10.
Long Beach led Hawaii in almost all statistical categories on Saturday. The LBSU held the advantage in eliminations (58-51), the decisive assists (56-47), the AS (8-5) and the blocks (8-7). The two teams were equal with 24 divorms each, while the Rainbow Warriors finished with a punch percentage of .411 with the LBSU .342 clip.
Finn Kearney punctuated Hawaii with 14 striking attacks, while Adrien Roure succeeded in 11 striking attacks while hitting .579 to go with nine excavations and was appointed MVP of the tournament. Louis Sakanoko has added eight striking attacks and four ASs (all in the fourth decisive set), while Hawaii won the title of the Big West tournament for the third time in the past four years. Tread Rosenthal collected five striking attacks and 42 assists, while Kurt Nusterer and Justin Todd intermediate blockers hit a .667 combined with 13 striking attacks.
NATO Dickinson led Long Beach (27-3) with a career summit of 21 striking attacks while reaching 0.485, and Alex Kandev has 12 striking attacks and five blocks. Moni Nikolov managed seven striking attacks, four AS and 47 assists.
The Warriors struck a Blister .540 in the first two sets with 32 striking attacks against five errors in 50 attempts. Long Beach moved away at the start of the third set and again took an early advance in the fourth, but the Warriors caught them and exceeded them to close it.
In the MPSF tournament …
Pepperdine 3, USC 1: The fourth seeded Pepperdine won the title of the tournament for the seventh time with a victory 26-24, 25-20, 21-25, 25-21 on USC, second seeded, Saturday evening at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu, obtaining an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament field.
After the exchanges blow in the first three sets, Pepperdine (20-9) moved away at the end of the fourth, crowned by a pâté of Cole Hartke and William Whidden with an USC attack error to follow for the title.
Ryan Barnett punctuated the waves with 23 significant attacks while hitting 0.333 and was appointed MVP of the tournament, while the teammates Jacob Reilly and Cole Hartke were appointed to the team of all tournaments.
Ilay Haver succeeded in 11 striking attacks and 18 excavations, while Hartke managed eight striking attacks, four blocks and three aces. Reilly added 12 excavations and the Gabriel Dyer sector collected 44 assists and two aces.
Selection of the tournament, Dillon Klein succeeded in 16 striking attacks, five blocks, eight excavations and a pair of AS to punctuate the USC (21-7). Parker Tomkinson achieved six striking attacks, seven blocks and hit 0.545, also winning the honors of all tournaments. Jack Deuchar has added eight striking attacks, while Christian Connell had five striking attacks and two houses on the bench. Setter Caleb Blanchette collected 42 assists.
Trojan horses took out the waves. 231 to .193 and had more blocks (15.5-8.5), but Pepperdine won the service game with eight ASs on the USC.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
