By Davis Ramage
COLUMBUS, Ohio – No. 1 seed Long Beach State men’s volleyball (28-3) and the No. 5 Pepperdine Waves (21-9) locked into a thriller of a match on Saturday, May 10 at the Covelli Center in Columbus, Ohio that ended in a 3-1 LBSU win.
Outside hitter Alex Kandev and redshirt senior opposite Nato Dickinson registered 19 kills apiece as they eventually found a way to power through the tough Pepperdine block.
The Beach looked shaky to start the game, giving the Waves four of their first nine points off errors.
However, LBSU’s connection between two of their freshmen Bulgarians, setter Moni Nikolov and Kandev, had it going early and kept it going throughout the entire match.
Nikolov, who last night was named AVCA and NCAA Player of the Year, finished with 52 assists, six kills and five aces.
The Beach’s creativity in the air was keeping them in the match with Nikolov and Dickinson finding ways to get around the tough block of the Waves.
LBSU redshirt senior opposite Nato Dickinson goes up for a kill versus Pepperdine. He finished the game with 19 kills in a 3-1 win against the Waves on Saturday, May 10 at the Covelli Center in Columbus, Ohio. Photo credit: Mark Siquig.
This creativity at times hurt The Beach as Dickinson’s wrist away attempt landed out of bounds for an attack error and put the Waves up 19-16, forcing a Beach timeout.
Three straight Pepperdine points coming out of the timeout erupted the Waves’ fans, and an ensuing kill from redshirt sophomore middle blocker Ethan Watson put the exclamation mark on the first set, 25-20 in favor of the Waves.
“You have to give respect to a team that’s that hot [Pepperdine] and believe it,” Knipe said.
Redshirt junior opposite Skyler Varga started the set off with a wrist away kill around the block, and junior middle blocker Ben Braun followed that with a fingertip-kill over the block that landed just shy of the back line to make it 3-2 The Beach.
No side led by more than a point until Kandev found his groove with back-to-back kills fired around the Pepperdine block to give LBSU a 13-11 lead, forcing a Pepperdine timeout.
With Nikolov at the service line and LBSU down 18-17 after a four-point Pepperdine run, LBSU scored two points in a row, including an ace and a triple block to make it 19-18.
Fittingly, Kandev finished the set off in thundering fashion with a kill that ricocheted off the Pepperdine block and landed in the stands behind the media row.
No team led by more than two points at any time in the second set, with the set tied 15 times.
The back-and-forth nature of the match continued as neither team separated by more than two points again, until Nikolov stepped up to the service line at 10-8 in favor of The Beach.
He fired two aces in a row off Pepperdine receivers and turned to the crowd to celebrate, tying and breaking the freshman NCAA record for aces in a single season on back-to-back serves with 101 and counting.
“I don’t care if we lose Monday and I have the ace record. I don’t care if we win Monday and I have the ace record,” Nikolov said. “I just want to win Monday.”
Nikolov’s mid-air magic came up large for The Beach as he registered two one-handed dumps in three points and made sure to stare down the Waves players both times. His second dump put The Beach up 18-14.
LBSU was able to hold onto its lead and won the third set 25-19 as Kandev again closed the set with a kill that bounced off Pepperdine’s receiving attempt and landed in the stands.
LBSU freshman outside hitter Alex Kandev finished the game with 19 kills, and nine in the second set. He and redshirt senior opposite Nato Dickinson combined for 38 kills in The Beach’s 3-1 win over the Waves on Saturday, May 10 at the Covelli Center. Photo credit: Mark Siquig
Dickinson came into the fourth set firing with kills on four of The Beach’s first seven points.
Freshman middle blocker Isaiah Preuitt, who has seldom played this season, came off the bench in the second set and made a massive impact throughout the game, adding four kills and three blocks.
“The guy has ice water in his veins,” Knipe said.
A Preuitt kill followed by another Nikolov ace gave The Beach a 16-15 lead, their first lead of the set since it was 6-5.
Waves’ redshirt junior outside hitter Ryan Barnett’s did his best Nikolov impression of his patented fake kill to set and set up redshirt freshman opposite Matt Mazur to cut The Beach’s lead to 22-21.
However, it was Dickinson again who fittingly added another kill to take the fourth set 25-23 and send LBSU to the National Championship on Monday, May 12 at 4 p.m. against the winner of UCLA and Hawai’i.
“You play all season long for the opportunity to be one of the last two teams playing on the last day of the season,” Knipe said.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 5:51 p.m. on Saturday, May 10 to clarify the headline.
