Long Beach State middle blocker Simon Towey spiked the ball past two Belmont Abbey players during the second set of the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals at Walter Pyramid on Tuesday. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)
LONG BEACH — The Long Beach State men's volleyball team wasn't left behind Tuesday night.
In the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals at Walter Pyramid, second-seeded Long Beach recovered from a slow start to defeat seventh-seeded Belmont Abbey 25-18, 25-14, 25-11.
LBSU (26-2) advanced to the semifinals for the third consecutive season and will play the winner of the game between No. 3 seed Grand Canyon and No. 6 Ohio State on Thursday afternoon.
Long Beach joins No. 1 seed UCLA and No. 4 seed UC Irvine in the Final Four.
“At this point, you want to move on, and our players did a great job of that,” Long Beach State coach Alan Kneipp said. “I think we settled in well and got our offense back on track.”
Long Beach was led by Sotiris Siapanis with 11 kills, and Skyler Varga and Nathan Harlan each had 10 kills.
“It was lights out tonight, so it was pretty easy to pass,” Long Beach setter Aidan Kneipp said.
Long Beach (26-2) faced its biggest push from Belmont Abbey (N.C.) early in the first set.
Harlan's second block gave the Crusaders a 5-3 lead, but Harlan's ace followed soon after and three more winners gave Long Beach an 8-5 advantage.
Belmont Abbey (21-5) was still within three points at 16-13, but 6-foot-10 middle blocker Simon Towie got a kill, then Belmont Abbey hit back-to-back misses. , giving them a 19-13 lead.
A set error gave LBSU a game point, and another hitting error by the Crusaders ended Game 1.
Alan Kneipp said of Belmont Abbey, “We had a lot of long rallies and dug the ball a lot.” “It turns out that no moment was too big for them.”
The Crusaders took the final lead at 5-4 in the second set, before Long Beach scored five straight points on Varga's ace to take a 9-5 lead. LBSU hit five more straight to extend the lead to 14-6, and Belmont Abbey never got closer than seven points the rest of the set.
LBSU then took a 10-2 lead in the third set and was able to cruise the rest of the way, ending the match with a kill from backup middle blocker Lazar Buchkov.
“Let's take a deep breath and enjoy tonight,” Alan Kneipp said. “At the (Wednesday) night social gathering, we will let our players enjoy some of the Final Four experience. The most important thing for us is to continue to progress and continue to play the Long Beach State brand of volleyball. is.”