LONG BEACH, Calif. >> Now what?
Hawaii’s postseason hopes are up in the air today after being swept by No. 1 Long Beach State 25-23, 25-14, 25-19 in Saturday’s Big West tournament final. The Rainbow Warriors will be three hours into their return flight to Honolulu when the NCAA men’s volleyball tournament bracket is announced on NCAA.com at 7 a.m.
Last year, Hawaii coach Charlie Wade persuaded the cockpit to access the selection show so that the Warriors knew before landing in Honolulu that they’d be back on a plane a week later. The scenario is likely to be repeated today, including being awarded an at-large berth … IF the selection committee follows the criteria it is supposed to use.
“My gut says Hawaii, but it’s tough for me to say for sure,” Long Beach State coach Alan Knipe said after his team kept the Warriors out of system for most of the 102 minutes at the Walter Pyramid. “I have a tough time thinking that Hawaii doesn’t get in. And I’ve expressed that to Charlie.
“I’ve been on both sides (of getting an at-large berth) and it’s not an ideal situation to have to wait on a committee.”
The 49ers had no such worries on Saturday night when they won the inaugural Big West tournament title, and the NCAA’s automatic berth, doing so in convincing fashion. Junior setter Josh Tuaniga, named the tourney’s most valuable player, orchestrated an efficient and balanced attack that kept the Warriors off-balance.
Long Beach State hit .369, just 10 points off its national-best percentage coming into the match. Two-time league MVP TJ DeFalco, a junior hitter, and junior opposite Kyle Ensing each had eight kills and senior hitter Bjarne Huus, who had seven kills on 12 swings with no errors for the 49ers as they ran their home winning streak to 29 dating back to 2016.
Hawaii sophomore opposite Rado Parapunov finished with a match-high 10 kills but had eight errors, mostly when being blocked. Junior hitter Brett Rosenmeier added eight kills.
The 49ers focused on shutting down junior middle Dalton Solbrig, who had nine kills without an error in Friday’s win over UC Irvine. He had three kills and four errors, hitting -.143.
“We had the same plan when we were in Hawaii and didn’t execute that,” Knipe said of Solbrig, who had a combined 18 kills with two errors in the two matches at the Stan Sheriff Center
The Beach kept the pressure on from the service line all night, with 10 aces and other heaters that shook Hawaii’s normally steady serve-receive. What has been one of the Warriors’ strengths — their passing — became a liability, which limited junior setter Joe Worsley’s options.
“Hats off to Long Beach,” Worsley said after his team hit a season-low.152. “They were really going after it from the service line. When they’re reeling like that (from the service line), it’s really tough to stop them.”
Hawaii led just once the entire match, that at 1-0 to open Set 2, and that was on a 49ers service error. As close as Set 1 had been, with the Warriors fending off two set points to close to 24-23, the rest of the night was the complete opposite.
Hawaii was chasing from the outset of Set 2, and didn’t look pretty doing it. Long Beach State had five aces in rolling to a 19-8 lead, including DeFalco’s 50th of the season.
Three more aces came early in Set 3 as the Warriors fell behind 7-0, 9-1 and 13-4. Hawaii made it respectable, getting two consecutive kills by sophomore middle Patrick Gasman to close to 19-13. It would have been closer, but Long Beach State won both of its video replay challenges, a four-point swing that would have made it 17-15 instead.
Instead, the 49ers celebrated on the court for a second straight year, leaving the Warriors again wandering and wondering, not just about what happened Saturday but what happens next.
Wade said he thought the team had heavy legs during Saturday’s practice, some obvious signs of fatigue from the travel.
“We didn’t have quite the same bounce that we usually had,” he said. “If we had closed out the first set, maybe it’s a little different outcome. Second set, they had a couple nice serving runs and once they get a lead, Josh can get pretty creative.
“Same thing happened in the third when we got way down. That’s the disappointment, in getting behind early and our serve-reception, one of our strong suits.
“I still think we’re a very good volleyball team and we deserve for our season to continue.”
Coming into the week, the Ratings Percentage Index, which ranks teams based on factors including strength of schedule, had Long Beach State at 1, followed by Brigham Young, UCLA, UC Irvine, Hawaii, Loyola-Chicago and Ohio State.
On Saturday night, BYU defeated UCLA for the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation title and automatic bid, and Ohio State defeated Loyola-Chicago for the MIVA’s automatic bid. The other automatic bids went to Harvard in the EIVA and King in Conference Carolinas.
One of the two at-large berths is expected to go to the Bruins. UCLA is also hosting the national tournament beginning with the two first-round matches on May 1.
The remaining at-large likely comes down to Hawaii and Loyola. The Warriors are the only team to beat Long Beach State and UCLA, as well as defeating UCI twice.
“I wouldn’t say our chance is 100 percent to get in, but I don’t see how they move us down (in the RPI),” Wade said. “If they don’t take us, who was No. 2 team and the No. 2 seed in the No. 1 conference, with a top-five RPI, then who? I think if they were to take someone else, then the RPI means nothing.”
