Long Beach State University Athletics
Long Beach State University
23-7
Pepperdine
17-10
49ers End Season With Loss To Pepperdine
5/1/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Volleyball
May 1, 2008
Photo Galley from the National Semifinal
IRVINE, Calif. - Junior Paul Carroll led the Pepperdine Waves to a 30-26, 30-21, 30-26 win over third-ranked Long Beach State on Thursday evening in the NCAA Championship semifinals at the Bren Events Center. Carroll recorded 15 kills and J.D. Schleppenbach 14 to lead the Pepperdine offense. The Waves won their fourth consecutive match to improve to 17-10 on the year. The 49ers ended their season at 23-7.
Pepperdine advances to Saturday's NCAA Championship match where they will take on number one-ranked Penn State, which dispatched of Ohio State in four games in Thursday first semifinal match.
Long Beach was led by senior All-American Paul Lotman who tallied 14 kills. Dean Bittner added 12 kills, Dan Alexander eight and senior Adam Schlesinger had six kills on seven swings off the bench. Long Beach hit .250 (48-24-96) in the match, while Pepperdine hit a blistering .500 (48-9-78).
Cory Riecks chipped in with 12 kills for the Waves to fuel their offense. Schleppenbach hit .778 (14-0-18) and Riecks .474 (12-3-19). All-American setter Jonathan Winder had 39 assists and the Waves had 10.0 team blocks in the match. Tyler Jaynes led the Waves with six blocks and Carroll added five.
The 49ers dropped the opening game 30-26 as Carroll and Riecks both recorded six kills for Pepperdine. Long Beach pulled to within 27-26 after a Bittner kill and Carroll hitting error, but the Waves closed out the game with a 3-0 run, thanks to kills by Riecks and Carroll and a 49er hitting error. Pepperdine hit .379 (16-5-29) in the game compared to just .188 (15-9-32) for the 49ers. The 49ers never led in the game, but there were eight ties.
Game two saw the Waves jump to a quick 5-1 advantage. After a 49er timeout, Long Beach responded with a 4-0 to tie the game at 5-5 and force a Wave timeout. But from there on it was all Pepperdine. The Waves led 14-13, but used a 6-1 run to grab a 20-14 lead. Pepperdine then pushed the lead to 10 points at 27-17 before eventually winning 30-21. Pepperdine hit an impressive .542 (15-2-24) in the game with just two hitting errors. Long Beach hit .088 (14-11-34) with 11 errors. The Waves had six team blocks in game two alone.
In game three the 49ers took their first lead of the match at 1-0 to begin the game. The Waves led 22-21 and had a 4-1 run to push the advantage to 26-22. Long Beach pulled to with 28-26, but after a Wave timeout, consecutive kills by Carroll and Riecks gave Pepperdine the game and match.
