In the Firestone Fieldhouse on the Pepperdine campus Saturday night, history was repeating itself—and in the burgeoning rivalry between the Waves and the Beach, that hasn’t been a good time to be in gold and black. Their last six meetings now, Pepperdine has come out on top, including eliminations of the 49ers in last year’s MPSF tourney, and the NCAA Final Four. Unfortunately for Long Beach, things went along the same lines in a four set, 30-28, 30-25, 23-30, 30-27 loss in the first round of the MPSF Tournament.
The 49ers fell victim to their two most persistent foes this season: trouble closing sets and service errors. The 49ers jumped out to an early 12-7 lead in the first set, but Pepperdine came racing back outscoring LBSU 11-4 at one point to take a three-point lead. The Beach battled back tying it at 27 but couldn’t get over the top losing the set. All told on the evening the 49ers had 24 service errors, with over 20% of their serve attempts resulting in points for the Waves.
49ers coach Alan Knipe pointed out that the aggressive serving style also helped to get them a lot of points, and said the way Pepperdine dominated the net was a bigger factor (17.5 blocks to Long Beach’s 4). “That big gap in blocks was huge,” he said. “Those are real points and they do matter.” He also correctly pointed out that every time a ball went up into the low Pepperdine lights, or rattled around and came down for a long rally, the Waves won the point. “Those are usually worth two points, because of the momentum swing.”
After dropping the close first set, the ‘Niners seemed to have a let-down in the second. Pepperdine controlled it after jumping out to a 9-3 lead. The Waves pushed the lead to as many as eight on two occasions before winning by five. LBSU struggled hitting just .195 in the set while Pepperdine continued its hot swinging hitting .333. Dean Bittner, who finished with 30 kills to lead the Beach, led the 49ers with five kills in the set but also had four errors on 15 swings. Freshman Jim Baughman was a bright spot throughout, but hit well in the middle in the second set, with four kills on five swings. Baughman finished with a career-high 17 kills on 26 swings (.538). His mate in the middle Dan Alexander hit .700 with 14 kills on 20 swings and Josh Riley chipped in 10 kills for LBSU.
It is unfortunately a common sight for 49er fans, Bittner having a big night but the team still losing. “It’s the Michael Jordan effect,” said Knipe. “You get down and you ride your hot hitter. It makes you become predictable in crunch time.” He also praised the play of Baughman, and Dustin Watten, who wrapped up his career with 14 digs, the 43rd double-digit dig match of his career.
On the verge of a three-set laugher, the 49ers fought back and dominated the third set, leading by as many as eight points 12 different times with the first one coming at 12-4 and the last at 26-18. Pepperdine made a run to cut the lead to four at 27-23, but Bittner was too much for the Waves to overcome with 12 kills in the set. The ‘Niners hit .562 in the set with only four errors.
The fourth set was a classic, with 17 tied points. LBSU fell behind 13-10 but rallied to score the next four points to take the lead. The two teams swapped the lead seven times after that with LBSU’s last lead coming at 21-19. The Waves answered with four straight points to reclaim the lead 23-21. The Beach managed to tie it three times, at 25, 26 and 27, but could never regain the lead before Pepperdine closed it out. Service and hitting errors proved the backbreaker in the final frame, as the Beach just couldn’t find the back line—they dropped the match and ended their season in the set where Pepperdine left the door wide open, as the Waves hit just .167, their only set under .333. The ‘Niners came in just under that at .156. MPSF Most Valuable Player Paul Carroll led Pepperdine with 19 kills on 41 swings (.366).
Knipe said he was proud of the way his team battled, though, despite the mistakes. “They fought through adversity this season, a lot of high expectations, a stretch where we lost a lot of matches—we played our best volleyball down the stretch, and I’m super proud of ‘em. Lesser teams would have folded. They wore the logo well,” said the emotional coach, who will now depart the program for three years to run USA’s Olympic program.
“It’s hard to leave this team,” he said, “But it would be hard to leave any team. You’re around them so much it would be hard not to get attached. These guys, this is everything I’ve known for the last 16 years.”