LONG BEACH, Calif. โ Ethan Champlin had 15 saves and six blocks, Merrick McHenry hit .818 and added 10 kills with five blocks and top-seeded UCLA beat Long Beach State 25-20, 25- Defeated 21, 27-29, 25. -21 On Saturday, the NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship will be crowned for the second consecutive year.
UCLA (26-5) has won an all-time NCAA men's volleyball title with 21 titles. Second place Pepperdine has won five times.
Back-to-back kills by Zach Lama gave the Bruins, who are ranked No. 2 in the National Volleyball Coaches Association poll, a commanding 22-20 lead in the fourth and final set. McHenry then hit an ace to pull second-seeded LBSU to within one point at the top, then Llama's kill (his third and final point of the game) made it 23-21, but Long Beach State College's Skyler Varga made consecutive attack errors. I sealed it.
Cooper Robinson finished with a .419 batting average, 12 kills and three blocks for UCLA. Andrew Rowan had 46 assists and two blocks, and Ido David had nine kills, eight digs, four blocks and three aces.
Sotiris Siapanis led top-ranked and second-seeded Long Beach State (27-3) with 12 kills, but hit only .161 and had four service errors. Aidan Kneipp had 38 assists, eight digs and eight total blocks. Varga finished with a .081 batting average and 11 kills.
Siapanis' service error started a 4-0 run that gave the Bruins the lead for good. McHenry's four kills gave UCLA a 25-21 win in the first set after his attacking errors halted the spurt and made it 16-12.
The Bruins took a 10-4 lead in the second set with Ido's two kills and two aces, and UCLA scored 12 points off a Long Beach State error before Robinson's kill took the set to two. The score was 0-0.
There were 18 ties and seven lead changes in the third set, but David's service errors and blocks allowed Dearis McRaven to win the third set 29-27 and keep LSBU's season alive.
The Bruins, who defeated Long Beach State in the 2023 NCAA Tournament semifinals, advanced to the title match with a 22-25, 25-20, 25-16, 18-25, 15-12 victory over fourth-seeded University of California, Irvine. advanced.
Host LBSU fell behind 2-0 but rallied to defeat third-seeded Grand Canyon 24-26, 26-28, 25-18, 25-23, 15-10 in Thursday's semifinals. . The Beach was 19-0 heading into the title match at Walter Pyramid this year.