Forget about regular-season results or the ones from the conference tournaments. This week’s third season is the only one that counts.
All that matters is what happens inside the Walter Pyramid at Long Beach State, site of the 50th NCAA men’s national championship. It is the ultimate one-and-done-until-2020 for five of the six teams competing, and one-and-done-it-right for the winner.
Five previous winners are in the field, including host and defending champion Long Beach State. The 49ers also won in 1991 when their current coach Alan Knipe was playing, defeating USC at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Also in is Pepperdine, whose five titles are second only to the 19 won by UCLA. The Waves’ last banner came in 2005, in a five-set marathon over the Bruins at Pauley Pavilion.
USC’s last of four titles came in 1990, a four-set victory over Long Beach State.
And then there are the two asterisks. Both Hawaii (2002) and Lewis (2003) had their titles vacated due to what the NCAA considered use of ineligible players. The Rainbow Warriors defeated Pepperdine in four, a rematch of the MPSF final won by the Waves in four a week earlier. The Flyers, the only Division-II program to make the national final, outlasted BYU in five the last time the NCAA tournament was at the Pyramid.
Princeton’s journey to its second national tourney began when the Tigers eliminated Conference Carolinas champion Barton 3-1 in last week’s play-in match. The only other time Princeton made the NCAAs was 1998 when the Tigers were swept by Pepperdine in the semifinal at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Tuesday’s teams are playing their best volleyball at the right time. The problem? Each of the winners will face an opponent which has been playing its best volleyball pretty much all season: top-seeded Hawaii and second-seeded Long Beach State.
After Pepperdine defeated USC for the MPSF final on April 20, Waves coach David Hunt hosted a viewing party at his home to watch the Warriors-49ers match that started at 11 p.m. in California.
“It was an impressive level of volleyball,” said Hunt, named the MPSF coach of the year last week. “I watched all three of their matches (including the 49ers’ two five-set wins April 12-13). It was no surprise that one went five, too.
“From a national perspective, it fires me up that there’s such good volleyball taking place. The way Hawaii has been playing all season, I think they could have gotten the national player of the week every week.”
Hunt and the Waves saw the Warriors in the March 9 Outrigger Invitational championship won 3-0 by Hawaii. The biggest change since then is on the coaching staff: Marv Dunphy, who retired after the 2017 season, is back on the bench since March 25 when former assistant Brad Rostratter left to become Vanguard’s inaugural men’s coach.
“I think we’re playing better since we were at Hawaii,” Hunt said. “That was in the middle of a long road trip and I think we’ve started to get a grove and find our identity since then.”
The Waves are 9-1 since seeing the Warriors, the only loss at BYU in four.
Pepperdine has played every team in the field except Long Beach State. Looking at Tuesday’s other match Hunt said, “Lewis is playing well right now and we’re not surprised the USC got in (as an at-large). It’s going to be a battle. I think all the matches will be.”
At look at Tuesday’s matches
Lewis (25-5) vs. USC (18-10)
It will be “Flight On” vs. “Fight On” in this one. The Flyers, winners of their last seven, won both the MIVA regular-season and tournament championships. Three Lewis players earned first-team All-MIVA, led by senior setter Matt Yoshimoto. Dan Friend was named co-coach of the year. Senior hitter Julian Moses, son of Olympic track great Edwin, was the MIVA tournament MVP.
The Trojans came on strong at the end of the MPSF season, 7-2, the two losses coming to Pepperdine. Helping USC’s at-large quest was a sweep of then-No. 1 Long Beach State, the highlight of a 12-0 home record.
Leading the Trojans are first-team All-MPSF picks Jack Wyett, a senior hitter, and opposite Ryan Moss. Coach Jeff Nygaard won two NCAA titles at UCLA and twice was named MVP of the national tournament.
USC is 5-3 against Lewis, having lost the last four meetings. The Trojans defeated the Flyers in the 2012 NCAA semifinals.
Pepperdine (22-6) vs. Princeton (18-10)
The Waves are 6-0 against the Tigers, including the 3-1 season opener on Dec. 30, 2018, in Malibu. Pepperdine, 17-10 in 15 previous NCAAs, is back in for the first time since 2008.
The Waves had three senior hitters on the All-MPSF teams, led by repeat player of the year David Wieczorek, named the MVP of the conference tournament. The Waves hit a combined .401 in their MPSF tournament victories over BYU and USC to earn the league’s automatic berth. Pepperdine has won its last seven.
The last time Princeton won the EIVA championship (1998) 11 of the current players were not born. The Tigers won both the regular season (13-1) and the tournament titles, the later a 3-2 victory over perennial power Penn State.
Princeton had five players named All-EIVA, with junior George Huhmann becoming the first Tiger to be named Player of the Year. He was also named the the EIVA tournament MVP.
Sam Shwelsky was named coach of the year for the second time in his career. Princeton was on the road for its first nine matches, going 2-7. Besides falling to Pepperdine, the Tigers were swept at Hawaii and USC, and at home by Lewis. Princeton is on an eight-game win streak.
