By Hard season’s work for LBSU’s Alexander, Watten
It was a long road back to the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament, but the No. 2-ranked Long Beach State men’s volleyball team managed to reverse its fortunes into a regular season title, a No. 1 seed in the tournament and the privilege of hosting the tournament for the first time in the program’s history.
Resiliency and team unity helped turn around an 11-17 season in 2007 into a 23-5 triumph this year. Sophomore middle blocker Dan Alexander and junior libero Dustin Watten were around to bear the brunt of a losing season in 2007 and said the team worked hard not to be in that position again this season.
Much like head coach Alan Knipe, the all-MPSF selections believed hard work in the offseason paid off in the 28-match march to the regular season title.
“We had the same common goal – get to the national championship,” Alexander said.
“We worked our hardest when we worked together,” Watten said. “We literally started last year – going to the beach, Florida and training. Just to be here – we are definitely privileged, but we’re not going to let anything down.”
LBSU saw its preparation and training pay off when it upended No. 4-ranked CS Northridge in three games at the Matadome to clinch the top seed in the MPSF Tournament. Watten called the win “the biggest victory I was ever part of.”
“It was easy for me,” Watten added. “I hate Northridge. Every time we played them and lost, it was a huge burden on me.”
Alexander cherished not only the victory, but also the season as a whole.
“[This season] means a lot to us, solely coming from last season,” Alexander said. “We wanted to prove ourselves. We weren’t even in the top 15 entering this season.”
Actually, the 49ers were 10th in the preseason poll, but ended up with an 11-5 record against the nine teams ranked ahead. One of them is the 49ers’ semifinal opponent tonight at the Walter Pyramid.
Pepperdine (14-10) enters the tournament winners of its last two road matches, the most recent being at No. 6-ranked UCLA in four games during the quarterfinal round of the MPSF Tournament. The Beach swept Pepperdine in three games Jan. 30 at the Walter Pyramid, but was swept by the Waves Feb. 13 in Malibu. Watten believed that the collision between senior outside hitter Paul Lotman and freshman setter Mike Klipsch turned things around. Both Lotman, who needed six stitches, and Klipsch missed some playing time due to injuries suffered from the collision.
“They never really backed down [in Pepperdine],” Watten said. “But this time – our home-court advantage and our fans – we’re just going to play them off the court.”
“It’s a little different this time around,” said Alexander, “but we’ll get them. We know how to stop them.”
Help comes from more than 1,800 miles away
Freshman setter Mike Klipsch, from St. Louis, was not a part of last season’s 49er team that finished 11-17, but could still see the disappointment on the faces of those who were on the squad.
“When I first got here, you could tell that they still thought about last season,” Klipsch said. “They were working to make sure that didn’t happen [this year]. We were starting fresh and we just weren’t going to have a losing season.”
Klipsch was able to make an immediate impact this season, leading the nation in assists with 13.83 per game (13.77 against MPSF opponents), and earned the MPSF Freshman of the Year award along with a third team all-league selection. His highlights this season include a career-high 69 assists in a 3-1 win over Hawaii Jan. 11, and a 63-assist, 10-dig double-double in a five-game win at Pacific April 4.
“My job is pretty easy when I have people who can put the ball away,” said Klipsch, referring to playing alongside numerous contributors such as MPSF Most Valuable Player Paul Lotman. “No matter how good the set really is, even if it’s not that great. They just put it away – they know what to do.”
The next task: Pepperdine and All-American outside hitter Paul Carroll in the conference semifinals at 5:30 p.m. in the Walter Pyramid tonight. But Klipsch said it’s just as much about what the 49ers do, too.
“We want to stop Paul Carroll. He’s a really good player,” he said. “But really, we’ve just got to play our game and not let [the Waves] dictate what happens.”
Looking ahead
If LBSU can get past Pepperdine, then the final step in securing an automatic NCAA Championship Tournament bid would be in the MPSF Finals against the winner of tonight’s CS Northridge-Brigham Young match at 8 p.m. in the Walter Pyramid.
The No.3-seeded Cougars (24-4 overall, 18-4 MPSF) enter the match with wins in each of the last four meetings against the No. 4-seeded Matadors (23-6 overall, 17-5 MPSF), including a four- and five-game victory Feb. 1 and 2 in Provo, Utah.
The 49ers are the only team in the MPSF Tournament with wins over each of the other three participants.
LBSU swept BYU 3-0 March 20 and won in four games March 21 at the Walter Pyramid. Head coach Alan Knipe picked up his 150th career win in the first match, as Dean Bittner and Paul Lotman led the way with a team-high 18 kills.
The following night, the 49ers were able to withstand a 26-kill, 10-dig double-double from senior outside hitter Ivan Perez, and LBSU had four players of its own reach double figures in kills. Freshman setter Mike Klipsch served up a match-high 62 assists, giving him 109 in the two matches combined.
The Matadors split the season series with the 49ers, 1-1, including a five-game thriller at the Gold Mine Gym Feb. 29. LBSU jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead in game five, but watched CSUN storm back to win the deciding game, 15-13.
“They’re really hard to play here [in Long Beach] and have a great fan base,” said Matadors junior outside hitter Eric Vance, who recorded 22 kills and nine digs in the win.
Vance isn’t the only person to comment on the 49ers’ home court advantage this season. After a 3-1 win over LBSU March 29, UCLA junior opposite Sean O’Malley called the Walter Pyramid “the toughest place to play in the country.”
The 49ers extracted revenge with a 3-0 sweep in Northridge April 12 to claim the MPSF regular-season title and earn the right to host the tournament. Sophomore opposite Dean Bittner spiked home match-highs of 22 kills and a .645 hitting percentage to lead the way.
The MPSF championship match will take place Saturday in the Walter Pyramid at 7 p.m., and the winner will earn one of three automatic bids in Irvine at the NCAA Championship Tournament May 1 and 3.
