By SimpliFi Arena, Honolulu, Hawaii’ – Long Beach State men’s volleyball worked through a rough start and managed a four-set [22-25, 25-23, 25-19, 29-27] come from behind win in the Big West Volleyball Championship semifinal against Big West rival UC Irvine.
“Collectively throughout the match we played well and did enough to win the match,” LBSU head coach Alan Knipe said (via Spectrum Sportsnet OC 16 postgame coverage). “The start of the game we weren’t great, but a lot of it was just Irvine rolling on what they did last night. They kept it going. We weren’t up to the task of winning that first set but we steadied out.”
No. 23 Alex Nikolov going for a serve to open up a rally against UCI Photo credit: Nico Alba
Freshman outside hitter Alex Nikolov put up a career-high 28 kills despite being held to just two in The Beach’s set one loss. Sophomore outside hitter Clarke Godbold, who had 10 kills in the first two sets, and libero Mason Briggs were busy in sets one and two. The pair’s efforts kept The Beach within reach of the surging Anteaters who started the game with the same momentum they finished Thursday’s quarterfinal match against UC San Diego the night before.
Briggs and his Beach teammates celebrating after a kill against UCI Photo credit: Nico Alba
Sophomore outside hitter Francesco Sani led the Anteaters with 21 kills while senior setter Brian Garcia and redshirt sophomore outside hitter Doug Dahm’s blocking up front had them in the contest for most parts of the game.
“I knew we were a pass away from getting an opportunity,” Knipe said about his team’s early struggles. “We didn’t block a lot of balls tonight but we certainly got in the way of some, touched some. We were getting the creates we just needed to do a better job on the converts.”
On Nikolov, Knipe mentioned postgame that the Bulgarian phenom hasn’t stopped surprising him all season.
“He’s a special player, he’s a special competitor and there’s just times where he wants everyone to jump on his back and every team needs one of those guys, he’s our guy,” Knipe said.
Championship game
Right back in a conference championship game since missing out in last year’s finale, Knipe’s LBSU will be up against defending national and Big West champion, and this year’s hosts, Hawaii.
The Rainbow Warriors beat UC Santa Barbara [25-18, 26-24, 25-14] to advance into the final for the second straight season, setting up a one and two seed matchup in the title decider.
First serve is set for 10:30 p.m. PT on Saturday, April 23.
