By Jack Haslett
Yellow and black scarves filled the Walter Pyramid as Long Beach State matched up against No. 7 Belmont Abbey in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
The Long Beach State men’s volleyball team received home-court advantage and they didn’t disappoint, beating the Crusaders 3-0 in the quarter-finals of the 2024 NCAA Men’s Volleyball Tournament.
LBSU fans were seen cheering in the front row of the bleachers behind the volleyball court, some wore shark-pajama-clad clothes.
The Beach is seeking their first National Championship since it won back-to-back titles in 2018-2019 and the tournament berth is their third straight and seventh in eight years.
Both teams went back and forth to open the match and found themselves tied 5-5 in the first set before The Beach went on a 4-1 run to jump ahead.
The Crusaders fought back to within three before a 6-2 Beach run gave it some insurance and made the score 22-15. The Beach won the first set 25-18, which they led by as much as eight in the first set.
“They [Belmont Abbey] came in certainly ready to play and played super hard,” LBSU head coach Alan Knipe said. “You could tell the moment was definitely not too big for them.”
Despite it technically being a neutral location, home court advantage was true more than ever. LBSU was 17-0, at home in the Walter Pyramid during the regular season and the court was just as comfortable now as it was then, despite the added bright lights and NCAA blue court.
The Long Beach State men's volleyball team celebrate scoring a point during the third set of their NCAA National Championship tournament first round matchup against Belmont Abbey. The Beach would sweep Belmont Abbey 3-0 to advance to the next round. Photo credit: Naoki Gima
With the crowd fired up from the opening set win, the second set began with another exchange between the two teams until LBSU began to heat up.
Beach runs were the headline of the night as they consistently got the crowd on their feet and drained the energy of the Crusaders.
The first key run came from a 3-0 swing to bring the score to 8-5, igniting the crowd and forcing a Belmont Abbey timeout to regroup and try to kill the momentum.
Long Beach State’s big three led the way offensively just as they had all season. Halfway through the second, set senior outside hitter Nathan Harlan led the team with eight kills while junior outside hitter Sotiris Siapanis and sophomore opposite Skyler Varga each had seven.
LBSU surged ahead with a 9-1 run highlighted by junior middle blocker DiAeris McRaven’s electric kill to put The Beach up 18-7, their largest lead in a set to that point.
Varga put the exclamation mark on the set with a service ace securing the second set 25-14.
The Beach jumped out the gate in the third set with a 10-2 scoring run and never looked back.
Long Beach State men's volleyball junior outside hitter Sotiris Siapanis goes for a kill against Belmont Abbey in the first round of the NCAA National Championship tournament. Siapanis would record 11 kills and six digs in the sweep of Belmont Abbey. Photo credit: Naoki Gima
Belmont Abbey tried to stop the bleeding with a timeout down 8-2 in the third, but it was no use. The Crusaders chased The Beach through the rest of the match, never coming within six again.
After going up 18-10, The Beach rode a 7-1 run to victory and took the set, match and quarterfinal in a dominant 25-11 display.
It was a whole-team offensive effort for The Beach as five players had at least five kills with Siapanis posting a team-leading 11 kills while Vargas and Harlan both had 10 kills of their own.
“What we do is our job, we just play volleyball,” Siapanis said. “Everyone was playing good, we still like hyping each other up, it’s not like something different for us.”
Senior setter Aidan Knipe tallied 37 of the 44 LBSU assists in the match and showed why he was named an AVC Second Team All-American.
No. 2 Long Beach State gains another win with a 26-2 record while No. 7 Belmont Abbey ends their season with a 21-5 record.
LBSU will face No. 3 Grand Canyon University on Thursday, May 2 at 6:30 p.m. at the Walter Pyramid.
