HONOLULU — Eleventh-ranked and second-seeded Long Beach State completed an undefeated bracket run to claim its first Big West Beach Volleyball Championship at Queen’s Beach in Honolulu on Saturday afternoon.
Long Beach State has secured The Big West’s automatic bid to the 2023 National Collegiate Beach Volleyball Championship May 5-7 in Gulf Shores, Ala. The 16-team bracket is set to be unveiled next Sunday, April 30.
New in 2023, the event will be a single-elimination bracket and the NCAA Women's Beach Volleyball Committee will select teams on a national basis rather than be required to select a certain number of teams from each geographic region.
The Beach was out to impress early in the Championship, taking both Friday matches 5-0 to advance to Saturday’s winner’s bracket semifinal against host and No. 1 seed Hawai’i. The Rainbow Wahine had defeated Long Beach State three times in the 2023 campaign, all by a 3-2 score.
The final score was the same on Saturday, but this time in favor of the women in Black and Gold. LBSU jumped out to a quick two-point lead as No. 4 pair Christine Deroos and Maggie Walters and Emily Mattoon and Mari Molina on Court 5 won their flights. After Hawai'i responded at the threes, the first-year tandem of Malia Gementera and Taylor Hagenah came back from a first-set loss to force a third set. Extra points were needed before Gementera and Hagenah secured the 16-14 set win to send Long Beach State to the finals with a 3-2 team tally.
After going 2-1 in the first day of play, three-time defending champion and fifth-seeded Cal Poly advanced through the elimination bracket with an upset of their own. No stranger to weaving their way into the championship match the hard way, Cal Poly hoisted the trophy in 2018 from the bottom half of the bracket.
The Mustangs started the day by beating third-seeded UC Davis 4-1 to advance to the elimination bracket finals. Cal Poly clinched the match on the ones in a three-set battle. After going down 13-10 in the final frame, the Mustang duo of Peper Naess and Jayelin Lombard ran off five straight to secure the win and clinching point. After the Beach sent Hawai’i down, Cal Poly posted a dramatic 3-2 comeback victory to advance to the final as the lowest-seeded side playing for the trophy.
The Rainbow Wahine scored the first point after winning at the No. 5 spot before Court four went to the Mustangs. Hawai'i went ahead 2-1 after All-American duo Kaylee Glagau and Brooke Van Sickle pair picked up the 21-16, 21-27 victory, making the final two courts must-win affair for Cal Poly. The score was evened at the twos, when Izzy Martinez and sophomore Piper Ferch won in three, and it all came down to the Court 3. The Mustangs’ most reliable pair of upperclassmen came through in the clutch, as senior Delaney Peranich and graduate student Brooke Golik claimed a 18-21, 21-19, 15-12 win to eliminate the eighth-ranked team in the nation and send the Mustangs to their fourth-straight final.
The Beach were able to cool any early-day momentum the Mustangs built, powering to the 4-1 decision in the Championship. Mattoon and Molina again scored early, with the No. 2 tandem of Sydney Stevens and Julia Westby nabbing the second point of the match. Gementera and Hagenah recorded their 33rd win of the season to clinch the team victory and the No. 4 pairing of Deroos and Walters locked up the 4-1 victory.
Fans can tune into The Big West’s
daily wrapup show on ESPN+, hosted by Big West analyst Bryan Fenley debuting at 1:30 a.m. PT/10:30 p.m. HT, to see highlights from Championship Saturday.