MALIBU — Much like last season, the Pepperdine Waves were just too much for the Long Beach State men’s volleyball team to prolong its postseason Saturday night.
The No. 2-seeded Waves ended the No. 7 49ers’ season in similar fashion with a 30-28, 30-25, 23-30, 30-27 victory in the quarterfinals of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament at Firestone Fieldhouse.
Pepperdine (21-4), which has now won six consecutive meetings — and seven of the last eight — against LBSU, will advance to play No. 3 Cal State Northridge next Thursday. The Waves eliminated The Beach from last year’s MPSF semifinals as well as the NCAA Final Four.
The box score didn’t look all that different, either.
Errors — particularly from the serve — plagued the ‘Niners (14-14) all match as they finished with 32 hitting errors and 24 service errors. Meanwhile, Pepperdine committed just 14 attack errors and nine from the serve.
“We scored a lot of points tonight directly related to our serve,” LBSU head coach Alan Knipe said. “The numbers you don’t see [in the box score] is the points scored in the serve — you only see the errors.
“The balance was worth [the errors] tonight.”
The size of Pepperdine played a major role in the result, as well. The Waves out-blocked the 49ers, 17.5-4.
“It was a pretty big difference in blocks in a game that was so close score-wise,” Knipe said. “Yeah, that’s probably one of the biggest factors in the match.”
Entering the match on a four-game win streak, LBSU jumped out to a quick start in the opening set, winning six of the first eight points to force a Pepperdine timeout. The Waves settled down, rallying to tie the match at 18 — and again at 27 — before scoring three of the last four points for a 30-28 win in set one.
The only lead the 49ers would see in set two was the 1-0 advantage to start the frame. Pepperdine capitalized on seven blocks — the team’s most in any set — and 10 LBSU attack errors to claim a 30-25 victory.
The 49ers came out with the same aggression to start set three as they did to begin the match.
Only this time there was no letdown.
Junior Dean Bittner recorded 12 of his match-high 30 kills to lead The Beach to a 30-23 win in the third set. As a team, the ‘Niners recorded a match-best .562 hitting percentage and never trailed in the frame.
“It’s kind of like the Michael Jordan-effect … he scores 55 points and then they lose,” Knipe said, alluding to Bittner’s other big games that haven’t resulted in victories. “There’s no doubt, in any sport, when you’re so out of balance it’s not going to help that you become predictable in crunch time. And that’s going to help their block even more.”
The final set featured 17 ties and nine lead changes before the Waves put the 49ers away, 30-27, despite a woeful .167 hitting percentage. LBSU, however, was unable to overcome a dismal .156 mark. The Beach committed 10 more hitting errors, including seven from the serve.
“It’s always competitive [between the two teams] and you have to fight for every point,” 49er middle blocker Dan Alexander said. “A point here-and-there changes a whole lot.”
The Waves closed the contest on a 4-1 run, capped by a dual block from Tyler Jaynes and Paul Carroll. The duo led the way for Pepperdine, as Jaynes finished with 10 kills on .600 hitting and nine block assists while Carroll tallied a team-high 19 kills to go with seven block assists.
For LBSU, Bittner was joined in double-figure kills by Jim Baughman (17), Alexander (14) and Josh Riley (10). Alexander also hit a staggering .700 to lead all players, and Baughman posted a .538 percentage.
“Dan had a great night hitting, we just couldn’t get him the ball enough,” Knipe said.
Sophomore setter Mike Klipsch finished with 68 assists — one short of his career high — and libero Dustin Watten recorded a match-high 16 digs in his final match as a 49er.
Along with seniors Watten, Luke Shea and Daniel Fabry, the ‘Niners also said farewell to Knipe — at least for the next three years. Knipe will take a leave of absence to coach the U.S. men’s national volleyball team through the 2012 London Olympics and will return in fall 2012.
“We’re going to hire someone very good, I guarantee that,” said Knipe, who wouldn’t comment on potential names but added that he’s seen LBSU Athleics Director Vic Cegles’ list of candidates for the interim position. “But this program’s in great shape … We’re going to have our best core group of talent we’ve had since our [2004] team that played in the national championship game.”
Freshmen, like Baughman, have played their one and only year for Knipe.
“One of the many reasons I came to this school was for him,” Baughman said.
Alexander is sad to see Knipe leave before his senior year but understands the opportunity Knipe was presented with.
“It’s tough because that’s one of the reasons I came to Long Beach — an amazing coach,” he said. “But it’s such a huge honor for him, I wish him the best of luck and I’ll be keeping in touch.”