Championship
slips past 49ers
Long Beach State
Brigham Young
Men's
Volleyball:
The Beach loses the NCAA Men's Volleyball
National Championship in a close match against
Brigham Young University. It was the fourt
time this seasn the 49ers lost to the No.
1-ranked Cougars.
By
Paul DeCarlo
On-line
Forty-Niner The NCAA couldn’t have
hoped for a bigger bout in the 2004 National
Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship,
pitting two bitter Mountain Pacific Sports
Federation rivals against one another for
the fourth time this season. In the 1999
final, BYU beat Long Beach State, a team
eager for revenge and a chance to hang another
title banner next to its 1991 National Championship.
The
Cougars were out to avoid another upset
like the one they suffered at the hands
of Lewis in the 2003 title game, the team
BYU eliminated in this year’s semifinal.
No. 2-ranked Long Beach State swept third-seeded
Penn State 3-0 (30-26, 30-26, 30-26) in
the first semifinal Thursday, but No. 1-ranked
BYU outlasted the 49ers 3-2 in five games
(15-30, 30-18, 20-30, 32-30, 19-17) Saturday
at the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu.
BYU
(29-4), despite building a significant psychological
edge over the 49ers (28-7) by winning three
previous matches this year, made a number
of uncharacteristic mental errors down the
stretch. Long Beach State came out of their
corner to stun the Cougars by doubling their
score in the first game, while BYU hit back
with a solid win in the second.
The
Beach carried a two-games-to-one lead into
game four, where the two heavyweights would
trade blows throughout the remainder of
the match. Careless stumbles into the net
by Cougar setter Carlos Moreno, the AVCA
Division I-II Player of the Year, gave the
49ers key opportunities late in the game.
Moreno redeemed himself by converting two
tough kills to lead up to senior outside
hitter Jonathan Alleman’s huge block
to force the final game.
Long
Beach State was up 10-6 in game five, when
a BYU surge forced 49er head coach Alan
Knipe to call his last timeout with a 12-11
lead. The 49ers had a chance to win the
title on a weak BYU pass-over with a 14-13
edge, but nerves got in the way. The match
was tied at 17 when Alleman’s fourth
kill of the match put the ball in the Cougar’s
hands for match point. Senior opposite hitter
Scott Touzinsky’s kill attempt sailed
wide and BYU began the celebration, marking
their third national title since 1999.
Touzinsky
finished with 17 kills and five aces, tying
the NCAA record for most serving aces in
a title match. Senior outside hitter Jeff
Wootton tallied 16 kills and 10 digs and
setter Tyler Hildebrand put up 65 assists
to engineer a team attack percentage of
.312. The middle blocker combination of
Duncan Budinger and David Lee, with 15 and
13 kills along with four blocks apiece,
provided tough defense for the 49ers.
For
BYU, Alleman led the way with 13 kills and
4 blocks, with Joe Hillman adding 14 kills.
Fernando Pessosa put up 13 kills and nine
digs, while Victor Batista rounded out the
scoring with nine kills and a .538 personal
attack percentage. BYU head coach Tom Peterson,
who led Penn State to a championship in
1994, has now led two schools to NCAA titles,
the first coach to accomplish that feat.
In
the semifinal against Penn State, The Beach
put together a solid performance that hinged
on pinpoint passing and good blocking up
front. Touzinsky put up 13 kills and Budinger
hit an outstanding personal attack percentage
of .667 with 11 kills.
“For
me the big thing is our middles,”
Touzinsky said. “[Budinger] and [Lee]
played amazing.”
Tyler
Hildebrand had 41 assists in the win, leading
the team to a .326 attack percentage.
“We
always pass pretty well,” Hildebrand
said. “That’s one of the things
that makes us a lot better than a lot of
other teams.”
The
Nittany Lions only answered with a .234
attack percentage. Keith Kowal had 15 kills
and Ricky Mattei finished with 7 digs.
“We
were able to check off one of our goals
and we’re real happy with that,”
said Knipe, a middle blocker on Long Beach
State’s 1991 title team. “Some
of the things they did offensively and serving
caused us some problems, but we know the
level we’re going to have to play
Saturday night is going to have to be better
than the level we played tonight. We’re
real happy to be playing on Saturday night.”
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