No. 2 Long Beach State Advances to National Championship Match with Four-Set Victory over No. 3 Pepperdine

Thursday, May 2

Long Beach, Calif.

7:30 PM

Long Beach State University

27-2

Pepperdine

23-7

Pepperdine

Long Beach State

Photo by: John Fajardo

No. 2 Long Beach State Advances to National Championship Match with Four-Set Victory over No. 3 Pepperdine

5/3/2019 12:19:00 AM | Men's Volleyball

Box Score

The Beach hit .461 in the NCAA Final Four behind strong showings from Josh Tuaniga and TJ DeFalco

By: Lindy Zamora, Associate Athletic Communications Director

Check out the highlights from @LBSUMVB's NCAA Semifinal win over Pepperdine #GoBeach #LBNation #NCAAMVB pic.twitter.com/eMdK84nxwh
— Long Beach State Men's VB (@lbsumvb) May 3, 2019

Box Score (PDF) | Play-By-Play (PDF)

Postgame Press Conference

LONG BEACH, Calif. – The No. 2 Long Beach State men's volleyball won its 42nd consecutive match inside the Walter Pyramid with a 3-1 [25-21, 21-25, 25-16, 25-15] victory over No. 3 Pepperdine in the NCAA Semifinals to advance to the National Championship match.

The Beach (27-2) hit an impressive .461 in the match while holding the Waves (23-7) to a .168 attack percentage. LBSU's clip is the second-highest in Long Beach State men's volleyball NCAA Tournament history.

Senior setter Josh Tuaniga ran a balanced offense as he dished out 42 assists, while senior outside hitter TJ DeFalco capitalized on his passes en route to finishing the contest with 17 kills on a .500 (17-3-28) attack percentage.

Middle blockers Nick Amado and Simon Andersen contributed on both sides of the ball hitting .818 (9-0-11) and .778 (7-0-9), respectively, while adding six blocks apiece.

The Long Beach State offensive attack was strong as the Beach committed just six attack errors while five of their seven starters hit .300 or above.

Defensively, LBSU totaled 14.0 team blocks. In addition to the half dozen blocks by Amado and Andersen, Tuaniga and DeFalco posted five.

Leading the Beach with nine digs on the night was senior opposite Kyle Ensing, while senior libero Jordan Molina added six, and sophomore outside hitter Ethan Siegfried and DeFalco contributed five each.

In addition to a solid defensive effort, Ensing tied his career-high with six aces; three of which came consecutively in the fourth set.

The Beach offense was solid from start to finish as LBSU never hit below .350 in a set. Long Beach State hit .357 and limited the Waves to a .048 attack percentage in the opening frame en route to winning 25-21.
Pepperdine countered in the second set as the Waves broke a 20-20 tie on an ace by Michael Wexter to take a lead it would not relinquish. From there, the visitors would even the match at one set a piece after a an ace by Kaleb Denmark ended the set, 25-21.

Long Beach State was unfazed as the Beach opened the third set on a 4-0 run which forced Pepperdine to call a timeout. The Waves managed to even the score at 13-all, but the Beach regrouped after a timeout and rattled off three straight points to go back up 16-13. From there, LBSU tallied five consecutive points highlighted by a block and a kill from Amado to jump out in front 22-15 before cruising to a 25-16 victory.

The Beach were dominant in the fourth set as they hit .600 (13-1-20), while the Waves' five attack errors offset their five kills for a .000 hitting percentage. Despite the lopsided clips, the set was a back-and-forth affair early on. However, Long Beach State got back-to-back kills off the hands of DeFalco and Andersen to take a 10-8 edge, before Ensing's three straight aces put the Beach up 15-10. Long Beach State would extend and eventually take the set, 25-15, punching its ticket to its second straight National Championship match.

BEACH WIN!!!@lbsumvb defeats Pepperdine 3-1 (25-21, 21-25, 25-16, 25-15) #gobeach #lbnation #ncaamvb pic.twitter.com/d1JVNp9xzg
— Long Beach State Men's VB (@lbsumvb) May 3, 2019

Long Beach State will go head-to-head with Big West Conference foe and top-ranked Hawaii for the National Title on Saturday, May 4 at 5 p.m. The match will be televised on ESPN2.