LBSU Presser
FAIRFAX, Va. - Fourth-ranked Big West regular-season co-champion Long Beach State dropped the first set before rallying past No. 6 Grand Canyon, 3-1, in an opening-round match of the 2023 National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship at EagleBank Arena on Tuesday night. Set scores were 22-25, 25-17, 25-22 and 25-23.
George Mason University is serving as the host of the event for the first time in 33 years, since the 1990 edition.
With the victory, Long Beach State improves to 21-4 overall on the year. Fellow at-large qualifier Grand Canyon sees its 2023 campaign ended at 22-8. LBSU is now 19-10 in its 13th National Collegiate Championship appearance, including two straight. The Lopes were first-time entrants out of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
Tuesday marked the first postseason meeting between the programs, and just the second matchup all-time after a straight-set decision in favor of Long Beach State in Santa Barbara early in the 2019 season.
Long Beach State advances to play the No. 1 national seed in second-ranked MPSF double champion UCLA (29-2). The Bruins are winners of 10 in a row heading into Thursday’s semifinal tilt at 2 p.m PT on NCAA.com. UCLA swept a home-and-home series with LBSU back in February, 3-0 at home and 3-1 in Long Beach. It will be a rematch of last year’s thrilling semifinal that saw a reverse sweep by the Beach at the Bruins’ own Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom on May 5, 2022.
LBSU broke a final 21-21 tie late in the fourth set with three straight points courtesy of kills by Simon Torwie and Sotiris Siapanis, and a Torwie service ace. Grand Canyon turned away a pair of match points through kills by Camden Gianni and Christian Janke, but on a third match point, another Siapanis kill pushed the Beach on into a second straight national semifinal.
Clarke Godbold led four in double-figure kills for LBSU, putting down 13. Siapanis and Spencer Olivier had 12 apiece. Torwie wound up with 10 kills while serving both Beach aces on the night alongside eight total blocks to top all players. Godbold and Olivier had five block assists apiece. Olivier posted a second double-double by compiling 10 digs. Setter Aidan Knipe collected 48 assists, six digs and a block. Three-time All-American libero Mason Briggs got hands to a match-high 13 digs to go with two set assists and a kill.
For the Lopes, Gianni paced all players with 18 kills, adding nine digs and a pair of aces. Jackson Hickman (13 kills) and Janke (10) also reached double digits, while Nicholas Slight collected 49 assists.
Earlier in the match, LBSU jumped out to a 7-2 lead in the first set, but GCU gradually caught up by 11-11 using a 5-0 run. After seven more ties, the Lopes took their first lead at 19-18 on Janke’s ace. A 3-0 mini-run with a Beach service error and two Hickman kills made it 23-20 as the Lopes went up 1-0. LBSU went up 7-2 again in the second, and in fact even 8-2 on a combination block by Godbold and Shane Holdaway. This time, the Beach maintained that momentum and led for the remainder to level the contest.
The third frame was tied a fourth and final time at 7-7 before the Beach notched three successive points with two Olivier kills bookending a Hickman attack error. LBSU maintained an edge of at least two points over the rest of the set to grab the upper hand, 2-1.
LBSU out-hit GCU, .339-.258, and out-blocked the Lopes, 10.5-6.5.