By Davis Ramage
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Long Beach State men’s volleyball is set to take on the University of California, Los Angeles Bruins on Monday, May 12, at 4 p.m. at the Covelli Center in Columbus, Ohio, in a rematch of last year’s National Championship.
“Last year, you know, falling short in the finals and even in the Big West, I think we’re all a little hungry for a championship,” senior middle blocker DiAeris McRaven said.
The Beach and the Bruins met twice in the regular season, with The Beach sweeping twice, both at home and in Westwood. But as the saying goes, “It’s hard to beat a team three times.”
The two teams are separated by only 35 miles and have won four of the last six national championships. The Bruins claimed the last two titles, including last year’s victory over The Beach, while The Beach last won in 2019.
The Bruins are led by redshirt junior opposite hitter Cooper Robinson, who is coming off nine kills in the Bruins’ Final Four sweep of Hawai’i and is 13th in the nation in kills with 346.
Early in the match against Pepperdine, The Beach struggled to get past the block of the Waves, but as the match went on, a mixture of finesse from redshirt senior opposite Nato Dickinson and power from freshman outside hitter Alex Kandev were successful, as the two combined for 39 kills.
Kandev was pulled out of practice early, the day before the National Championship, but Knipe said there is nothing to worry about, and monitoring a player’s jumps is common.
“He’s had a lot of jumps the last couple of nights and we want those legs fresh,” Knipe said.
Freshman outside hitter Alex Kandev goes up for a kill in Saturday’s 3-1 win over Pepperdine. He registered 19 kills in that game and will play a large role in the National Championship against UCLA on Monday, May 12, at 4 p.m. at the Covelli Center in Columbus, Ohio. Photo credit: Mark Siquig
LBSU’s hitters will have to find the same success against UCLA, which posts the 11th-most blocks per set in the country, with 2.9.
Defensively, UCLA is led by 6-foot-4-inch junior middle blocker Cameron Thorne, who is ninth in the country with 106 blocks on the season.
As Saturday’s match against Pepperdine went on, LBSU cleaned up its attack errors with nine in the first two sets and only two in the last two sets, but one thing it will need to clean up against UCLA is the service errors.
The Beach posted 21 service errors, and every time it felt like they were about to go on a run, a service error was committed.
With sophomore opposite Daniil Hershtynovich and senior outside hitter Sotiris Siapanis sidelined for the national championship, The Beach will need production again from Kandev and Dickinson, as well as redshirt junior opposite Skyler Varga.
Varga only posted four kills in the first round vs. Fort Valley State, but picked up his production against UCLA with 11 kills.
“If I’m the guy that we have to lean on, then I’ll do that,” Varga said. “Whatever role is presented to me, I’ll step into it.”
The match will be aired live on Monday at 4 p.m. on ESPN+.
“Two really really talented teams playing great volleyball, and it’ll come down to execution and a few points here and there, which they always do,” LBSU head coach Alan Knipe said. “We look forward to the challenge, we can’t wait to get after it tomorrow.”
