They got a scare early, but the 49ers rebounded to beat UCSD in four sets, clinching the seven-seed in the MPSF tournament with the 28-30, 30-26, 31-29, 30-28 win on Friday night.  Josh Riley had his first career double-double with 17 kills and a career-high 14 digs.

The 49ers’ seventh seed gives them a game at second-seed Pepperdine Saturday in Malibu in the quarterfinals of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament. The Waves claimed the No. 2 seed after they lost to BYU Friday night and UC Irvine won at Stanford. LBSU was swept by the Waves this year losing 3-1 at Pepperdine on March 28 and 3-2 in Long Beach on March 4.

Riley hit .400 on 30 swings for LBSU (14-13, 11-MPSF), while Dean Bittner added 21 kills despite hitting just .186 on 59 swings. Mike Klipsch finished with a double-double as well recording 57 assists and 11 digs. Dustin Watten added 13 digs and Kyle Friend chipped in 10 digs. Dan Alexander had 10 blocks and nine kills while hitting .333 on 18 swings.

The Beach got off to a slow start losing the first set while hitting just .206, but the 49ers rebounded winning the next three sets hitting .323 in the second, .324 in the third and 275 in the fourth. LBSU finished the match hitting .282 while the Tritons (12-15, 8-14 MPSF), who were eliminated from postseason contention, finished hitting just .191. UCSD managed to hit .242 in the first set but was limited to .167 in the second set, .222 in the third set and .146 in the fourth.

From LBSU reports