No. 4 Long Beach State Set to Take on Top Seed UCLA in NCAA Final Four on Thursday

Thursday, May 4

Fairfax, Va.

2:00 PM

Long Beach State University

UCLA

Photo by: Holly Wong

No. 4 Long Beach State Set to Take on Top Seed UCLA in NCAA Final Four on Thursday

5/3/2023 1:26:00 PM | Men's Volleyball

The Beach and the Bruins will go head-to-head in the NCAA Semifinals on Thursday, May 4 at 2 p.m. (PDT)/5 p.m. (EDT)

By: Lindy Zamora, Associate Athletic Communications Director

#4 LONG BEACH STATE (21-4) vs. #1 UCLA (29-2)
Date: Thursday, May 4
Time: 2:00 p.m. (PDT) / 5:00 p.m. (EDT)
Location: Fairfax, Va.
Venue: EagleBank Arena
Live Stats: NCAA.com
Live Stream: NCAA.com
Talent: Lincoln Rose & Jay Hosack
Twitter: @LBSUMVB

COMPLETE LBSU MATCH NOTES (PDF)

No. 4 Long Beach State Set to Take on Top Seed UCLA in NCAA Final Four on Thursday
The No. 4 Long Beach State Men's Volleyball team advanced to the NCAA Semifinals where they will face top-seeded UCLA on Thursday, May 4 at 2 p.m. (PDT)/5 p.m. (EDT) at EagleBank Arena in Fairfax, Va.

Catch All The Action
All NCAA Tournament Semifinal matches will be broadcast live on NCAA.com. Fans can sign up for ESPN+ for $5.99 per month ($59.99 per year) at ESPN.com, ESPNPlus.com, or on the ESPN App. It is also available as part of the Disney Bundle that gives subscribers access to Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu for $13.99 per month (Hulu with ads) or $19.99 per month (Hulu without ads). Fans can also follow stats updates via StatBroadcast.com.

Staying Social
Follow Long Beach State Men's Volleyball on Twitter and Instagram at @LBSUMVB. You can also stay up-to-date on all things Long Beach State by following @LBSUAthletics on Twitter. Be sure to "like" us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram at @LBSU. And don't forget our hashtag #GoBeach.

In the Rankings
• Long Beach State remains in fourth in the NVA/AVCA Division I-II Coaches Poll, a spot the Beach has held since February 13.
• UCLA comes in second in the NVA/AVCA Division I-II Coaches Poll, however the Bruins hold the top seed in the NCAA Tournament.
• This year, Long Beach State faced eight nationally ranked opponents in the regular season.The Beach faced off against Top 15 opponents Hawaii, UCLA, Penn State, UC Irvine, GCU, Ball State, USC, Loyola Chicago, and at the time CSUN.
• The Big West is one of the most competitive Division I Men's Volleyball conferences as three of the six Big West schools are nationally ranked in the Top 5.
• This season, LBSU has posted an 11-4 record over ranked opponents. When playing opponents ranked in the top 5, Long Beach State is 4-4.

About The Beach
• No. 4 Long Beach State earned one of two at-large bids into the NCAA Tournament after falling in the Semifinals of The Big West Tournament to No. 5 UC Irvine on April 21.
• The Beach advanced to the NCAA Tournament Final Four after defeating No. 6 Grand Canyon in four sets. Long Beach State is now 21-4 overall record. LBSU finished Big West action with a 9-1 league record and won a share of The Big West Regular Season Title.
• LBSU has now recorded its 22nd 20-plus win season in program history and 11th under head coach Alan Knipe.
• Earlier this season, LBSU Head Coach Alan Knipe earned his 386th career victory becoming the winningest coach in Long Beach State Men's Volleyball program history. Knipe has now amassed 393 victories over his 20 year career at the helm boasting a .706 winning percentage.
• A defensively strong team, LBSU leads The Big West and ranks second in the nation in blocks per set with 2.83. Contributing to that output are the duo of Simon Torwie and Clarke Godbold who rank first and seventh in the country, respectively. Torwie leads the way with an impressive 1.60 blocks per set, while Godbold adds 1.09.
• In addition to blocks per set, LBSU ranks in the Top 10 in the country in hitting percentage (4th - .340) and opponent hitting percentage (8th - .204).
• LBSU set a program-record when all seven starters were named AVCA All-Americans. Junior libero Mason Briggs led the way with a First Team selection, while Clarke Godbold, Spencer Olivier, Sotiris Siapanis, and Simon Torwie collected Second Team honors, and Shane Holdaway and Aidan Knipe earned Honorable Mention status.
• Long Beach State boasted a program-record eight players to The Big West All-Conference Awards. Mason Briggs, Spencer Olivier, Sotiris Siapanis, and Simon Torwie were all named to the First Team, while Clarke Godbold, Shane Holdaway, and Aidan Knipe collected Honorable Mention status, and Connor Bloom was named to the All-Freshman Team.
• Offensively, sophomore outside hitter Sotiris Siapanis is the Beach's leading scorer with 3.21 kills per set which is good for seventh in The Big West. Siapanis also leads Long Beach State in service aces with 38 to average 0.45 per set, a mark that ranks him 14th in the nation.
• Setting the tone of the Long Beach State offense is redshirt junior Aidan Knipe who has dished out 9.60 assists per set on the year to pilot the Beach to a .340 attack percentage. Knipe's output is good for second in the conference and 18th in the country, while LBSU's hitting percentage is second in the league and fourth in the nation.
• With a career-high 66 assists at No. 15 CSUN on April 7, Knipe became the 11th player in Long Beach State Men's Volleyball program history to reach the 2,000 career assists milestone.
• A large contributing factor Long Beach State's high attack percentage is redshirt senior outside hitter Spencer Olivier who leads the squad with a .356 clip (219-58-452) which puts him 20th in the nation and second in The Big West.
• Defensively, Long Beach State is led by junior libero Mason Briggs whose 2.36 digs per set lead the conference and rank him fifth in the country. Briggs has accumulated 671 digs in his career to move into 12th place all-time at Long Beach State.
• True freshman Island Doty earned the start at setter at UC San Diego and did an excellent job leading the Beach to a sweep of the Tritons as they hit .318 in the contest. Doty finished the match with 17 assists, three kills on four errorless swings, five digs, and four blocks in his first-career start.
• Long Beach State has received solid play off the bench from several players this season including Ryan Peluso who came into the match against King and served up a match-winning ace.
• Redshirt freshman Connor Bloom has also provided several strong serving runs for the Beach including a solid outing at No. 11 USC in which he recorded an ace and led Long Beach on a run which gave them the lead. He was awarded Big West Freshman of the Week for his efforts.
• Calvin Sanborn has also been a key component to Long Beach State's success this season recording a pair of aces and six digs in 43 sets thus far.
• Nathan Harlan was a huge factor in the Beach's five-set win over No. 12 Loyola Chicago as he came off the bench and posted nine kills, seven digs, and two blocks, while hitting .286. Harlan was also a key component to LBSU's four-set road win at No. 11 USC as he posted eight kills on a .467 clip to go along with three digs, and one ace.

Scouting UCLA
• No. 1 seed UCLA earned a bye into the NCAA Semifinals after finishing the season with a 29-2 overall record and a perfect 12-0 MPSF mark.
• John Speraw is in his 11th season at the helm of the UCLA Men's Volleyball program and was just named the 2023 AVCA National Coach of the Year.
• UCLA had seven players named AVCA All-Americans this season as Ethan Champlin, Ido David, Merrick McHenry, and Andrew Rowan were named to the First Team, while Alex Knight garnered Second Team honors, and Guy Genis and Troy Gooch were awarded Honorable Mention.
• As a team, the Bruins are averaging a .381 attack percentage on 13.11 kills and 12.44 assists per set.
• On the defensive end, UCLA is averaging 7.92 digs, 2.89 blocks, and 1.97 service aces per set.
• David leads the Bruins offensively with 3.54 kills per set on a .365 attack percentage. He also adds 1.15 digs per set and 0.62 blocks per set on the year.
• Rowan is the team's setter as he is averaging 9.85 assists per set, while piloting UCLA to an impressive .381 attack percentage. He has also leads the Bruins with 49 aces, while chipping in 0.96 digs per set and 0.54 blocks per set.
• Gooch leads UCLA defensively with 1.87 digs per set in the backcourt, while Champlin owns 1.31 digs per set.
• On blocking defense Genis leads the way with 1.25 blocks per set, while McHenry adds 1.08 blocks per set to help the Bruins average a nation-leading 2.89 blocks per set.

The Series: The Beach vs. The Bruins
Long Beach State and UCLA will face each other for the 101st time in program history. In the all-time series, the Bruins lead the Beach, 55-45, including defeating LBSU in a pair of matches earlier this season. When playing each other at a neutral site, UCLA leads 13-6. When facing off in the NCAA Tournament, Long Beach State leads 2-1. The Beach's two NCAA Tournament wins came in 2022 and 2018. In 2022, LBSU defeated UCLA to advance to the NCAA Championship match. In 2018, the Beach knocked off the Bruins in five sets to capture the National Title.

Leaving a Legacy
Long Beach State Head Coach Alan Knipe has been a part of the Long Beach Legacy since he was a player in the early 90s. As a student-athlete, Knipe led the Beach to their first-ever NCAA National Championship in 1991. Following his graduation from Long Beach State and several years on the pro circuit, Knipe returned to his alma mater in 1996 as an assistant coach under his former head coach, Ray Ratelle. Upon Ratelle's retirement, Knipe took the reins of the program in 2001 and has been an integral part of the Beach's success. Despite a brief hiatus from 2009-13 when he coached the U.S. Men's National Team in the 2012 London Olympics, Knipe has been a fixture at Long Beach State. Throughout his tenure as head coach, Knipe has led the Beach to 393 career wins becoming the winningest coach in LBSU Men's Volleyball program history as he surpassed Ratelle's mark of 385. In addition to his nearly 400 career victories, Knipe has coached 70 All-Americans and half a dozen National Players of the Year. He has piloted the program to eight NCAA Final Four appearances, four NCAA National Championship showings, and two NCAA National Titles (2018, 2019). The three-time AVCA National Coach of the Year has also coached two AVCA Newcomers of the Year in his 20 seasons at the helm and is not done yet.

20/20 Vision
The Long Beach State Men's Volleyball team heads into the NCAA Tournament with a 21-4 overall record marking the 22nd time in program history the Beach has recorded 20 or more wins in a single season. In 20 years at the helm of Long Beach State, head coach Alan Knipe has led the Beach to 11 of those 20-win seasons. Overall, LBSU has only had one 30-win season in program history. That milestone came in 1991 when the Beach captured their first-ever NCAA National Championship.

Movin' On Up
On January 20, against Long Island, Mason Briggs logged 12 digs on his way to recording his 500th career dig. Since then he has moved into 11th place in Long Beach State's All-Time Career Record book with 684 surpassing Long Beach Legend Brett Schroeder, who finished his career with 681 digs. On the season, Briggs is averaging 2.36 digs per set, which leads The Big West and ranks him fifth in the country. The talented Briggs is well on his way to joining other Long Beach Legends such as Andrew Sato (979), Taylor Crabb (802), Dustin Watten (799), and TJ DeFalco (773), Brent Hilliard (737), and Brett Winslow (708) in the Top 10 at Long Beach State.

Among the Best of the Beach
At No. 15 CSUN, Aidan Knipe distributed a career-high 66 assists on his way to becoming the 11th player in Long Beach State Men's Volleyball history to record 2,000 career assists. On the year, Knipe is averaging 9.60 assists per set and is moving his way into the record book as he looks to join Long Beach Legends Tyler Hildebrand (6,651), Josh Tuaniga (4,607), Mike Klipsch (3,890), and Conor Eaton (2,620) in the Long Beach State Top 10.

Block Party
Long Beach State has been hot on blocking defense as the Beach leads The Big West and ranks second in nation with 2.83 blocks per set. A large contributing factor to the stout Long Beach defense has come from junior middle blocker Simon Torwie and junior opposite Clarke Godbold. Torwie and Godbold pack a 1-2 punch in The Big West averaging 1.60 and 1.09 blocks per set to rank first and third in the conference, respectively. In addition to leading the league, Torwie's 1.60 blocks per set average also leads the country, while Godbold's 1.09 average is good for seventh in the NCAA. Torwie's hot blocking defense has earned him Big West Defensive Player of the Week honors five times this season.

Career Night
Junior opposite Clarke Godbold had a career night at then No. 15 CSUN when he recorded a career-best 32 kills in a 3-2 reverse sweep over the Matadors. Godbold was on fire as he knocked down 32 kills on 49 swings, while committing just four attack errors to hit a hot .571 on the night. His 30-plus kill performance marked the first such showing for a Long Beach State Men's Volleyball player since 2010 when Dean Bittner dropped 30 in the MPSF Quarterfinals against Pepperdine on April 25. His 32 kills are also the most among all Big West players this season and tied for fourth most in NCAA Division I.

Killin' It
Sophomore outside hitter Sotiris Siapanis has done a solid job offensively for the Beach. The Limassol, Cyprus native has led LBSU in scoring on 14 separate occasions, and has recorded 14 double-digit kill performances, including four double-doubles against then-No. 12 Ball State, then-No. 11 USC, then-No. 15 CSUN, and at No. 5 UC Irvine. He leads the team in kills with 3.21 per set to rank seventh in the conference. Hot on Siapanis' heels is redshirt senior outside hitter Spencer Olivier who is averaging 2.74 kills per set to come in ninth in The Big West. Siapanis turned in a season-high 19-killl performance at No. 1 Hawaii in which he led the Beach to a three-set sweep. Olivier, meanwhile, has recorded a season-high of 16 kills on two separate occasions leading LBSU to a four-set win over then-No. 12 Ball State and a five-set victory over UC Santa Barbara.

Aces Wild
In addition to leading the team in kills, Sotiris Siapanis also sets the standard in service aces. He was incredible from the service line against Long Island on January 20 as he served up a career-high eight aces in a single-match. That mark is good for second all-time in the LBSU Single-Match Record book coming in just one shy of the program record (9) which was set in 2001 by Scott Touzinsky against Mercyhurst. On the season, Siapanis has recorded a team-leading 38 aces to average 0.45 per set, which ranks 14th in the country and second in The Big West. As a team, Long Beach State is averaging 1.42 service aces per set, which is good for third in The Big West and ranks them 23rd in the nation.

Hot Hitting
The Beach have been hot offensively as they own a .340 attack percentage, which is good for second in the conference and fourth in the nation. Junior setter Aidan Knipe has been on-point this season dishing out 9.60 assists per set to pace the Beach's offensive attack. He's done a solid job distributing the ball as his assists per set average comes in second in the league and 18th in the country. Against then-No. 12 Ball State, Knipe was phenomenal as he distributed the ball around and finished the match with five players in double-figures as LBSU hit .395. At No. 15 CSUN on April 7, Knipe dished out a career-high 66 assists to lead the Beach to a .384 attack percentage. With Knipe piloting the offense, the Beach has hit over .300 on 14 separate occasions this season.

Defensively Strong
While the offense has been hot, the Long Beach State defense has been equally solid. The Beach defense has held their opponents to a .204 hitting percentage on the year, which leads The Big West and ranks them eighth in the NCAA. The LBSU defense has been led by junior libero Mason Briggs in the back court, as well as junior middle blocker Simon Torwie at the net. The duo have kept LBSU opponents guessing thus far as they have forced opponents into 436 attack errors in comparison to their 903 kills on 2,286 swings. As a team, Long Beach State has outhit its opponents 19 times this season.

If You Build It, They Will Come
Since the Long Beach State Men's Volleyball program's inception in 1970, there has been a winning culture building over the years that has seen the program advance to 12 NCAA Final Fours and capture three NCAA National Championships (1991, 2018, 2019). In six of the last seven years, the Beach have made an appearance in the NCAA Tournament. With the success the program has had over the years, most notably since winning back-to-back NCAA National Titles in 2018 and 2019, LB Nation has shown its support packing the Walter Pyramid. On February 10 against UCLA, Long Beach State's fans came out in full force for an incredible sellout crowd of 4,138 to mark the third-largest Men's Volleyball Walter Pyramid crowd in program history. The contest comes in behind the program record of 4,674 fans who came out to watch LBSU vs. Hawaii on April 13, 2019, and the second-highest attended match of 4,560 on February 17, 2018 when the Beach hosted UCLA.

AVCA All-America Honors
The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) announced the 2023 AVCA Division I-II Men's Volleyball All-America Teams on Monday, and Long Beach State earned a program-record seven selections. Mason Briggs was named to the AVCA All-America First Team, while Clarke Godbold, Spencer Olivier, Sotiris Siapanis, and Simon Torwie collected Second Team honors, and Shane Holdaway and Aidan Knipe earned Honorable Mention status.

Coming Up...
Should Long Beach State defeat UCLA, the Beach will advance to the NCAA Championship match marking LBSU's ninth appearance in the NCAA Finals. The Championship match will feature the winner of the LBSU/UCLA match and the winner of the Hawaii/Penn State match. First serve is set for 2 p.m. (PDT)/5 p.m. (EST) on Saturday, May 6 at EagleBank Arena in Fairfax, Va.