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It came down to the final weekend to decide the regular-season champion as well as the top four seeds in the Big West men’s volleyball tournament..
It will come down to this weekend to decide which and how many of the conference teams will be playing in the NCAA tournament.
Two? Three?
There are no guarantees when it comes to the NCAA selection committee, just as there are no guarantees when it comes to the match outcomes in what is unquestionably the top league in the country.
The only thing for sure is that both top-seeded Long Beach State and No. 2 Hawaii will be playing in Friday’s semifinals at the Stan Sheriff Center. But just who the defending Big West tournament champion 49ers and the Warriors, last season’s runners-up, will see is as unpredictable as a jump serve.
Coincidentally, the schedule is a repeat of last year’s inaugural tournament at the Walter Pyramid. The only change is that UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Northridge have traded seeds; in 2018, the No. 4 Matadors eliminated the fifth-seeded Gauchos 3-1. CSUN was then swept by the host 49ers.
On Hawaii’s side of the bracket, the potential is there for a second consecutive semifinal between UC Irvine and the Warriors. The Anteaters again will have to go through UC San Diego to meet Hawaii. The Warriors won the match in 2018; the Anteaters won over the NCAA selection committee to get an at-large bid.
The biggest difference is the venue where Hawaii is 14-0 this season, and 44-4 the past three years. The Warriors, who had their first sellout since 1997 on senior night against UC Santa Barbara on April 6, are looking at another packed house for Friday’s match. (6,900 ticket packages sold).
If all goes according to seed, Saturday would be the third time in as many years that it’s Hawaii and The Beach for the conference title and the automatic NCAA bid. The 49ers have won the past two league championship tournaments and are 8-1 against the Warriors’ senior class, the lone loss coming on Hawaii’s senior night in 2018.
Six of the past eight matches between the two have gone to five, with Long Beach State 5-1 including last week’s two regular-season contests at the Pyramid. Hawaii led 2-1 before dropping the last two sets.
The Warriors were the only ones to keep the 49ers from a perfect season last year by winning the regular-season finale. The Beach ended Hawaii’s undefeated season last week.
Few would be surprised if this is just Round 2 of a three-round fight, the assumption that the 49ers and Warriors would meet Saturday and again in the May 4 NCAA championship hosted by The Beach.
Fewer would be surprised if it’s not. But it’s volleyball, where there are more good players than teams, as Hawaii coach Charlie Wade says.
And a lot of those players are in Thursday’s first round.
Thursday’s matchups
No. 3 UC Irvine vs. No. 6 UC San Diego
The Anteaters won their last three matches to vault past UC Santa Barbara and earn the third seed. In that run were two victories over the Gauchos, including Saturday’s 3-1 win on the road that decided the 3-4 seeds.
UCI hasn’t seen UCSD since February, sweeping the series. It was anything but easy, with the Anteaters winning in four in La Jolla and needing a huge rally at home to survive in five, 25-19, 27-25, 23-25, 25-14, 16-14. Set 5 was tied at 13 and 14, with UCI pulling it out on two Triton errors.
This is the first appearance for both the Anteaters and Tritons in the Sheriff Center this season. The two hosted Hawaii for regular-season matches, with the Warriors sweeping both series.
The Anteaters are led by first-team all-conference picks Joel Schneidmiller, a 6-foot-6 sophomore hitter who leads the Big West in aces, and 6-8 senior opposite Karl Apfelbach. Seven-foot junior middle Scott Stadick earned honorable mention on Monday and Alexandre Nsakanda, a 6-4 opposite, was named to the all-freshman team.
The Tritons had two named to the all-freshman team in middle Logan Clark and Blake Crisp, who has been platooning at setter. UCSD had a rough stretch to end the season, playing No. 1 Hawaii, No. 2 Long Beach State and No. 11 Cal State Northridge in the final three weeks to go 0-10 in conference for the second straight year.
No. 4 UC Santa Barbara vs. No. 5 Cal State Northridge
The Gauchos have lost their last four — two at Hawaii, then two to UC Irvine — costing them the No. 3 seed. UCSB did end Hawaii’s record sets-won streak at 74, a 25-23 win in Set 3 of the Warriors’ 25-16, 25-21, 23-25, 25-19 senior night victory.
The Gauchos’ last wins came when sweeping the series from CSUN, winning March 29 at home in three, then taking a five-set battle the next night on the Matadome’s Black Top.
Leading UCSB are all-conference seniors Corey Chavers, a 6-4 hitter, and 6-1 libero Hayden Boehle, along with freshman of the year Ryan Wilcox, a 6-4 hitter out of Punahou. Chavers leads the team with 343 kills and 38 aces; Boehle is second in the Big West in digs behind Hawaii sophomore libero Gage Worsley and ranks eighth in the Gauchos record book with 672 career digs.
Wilcox and Brandon Hicks, a 6-4 middle, were named all-freshman on Monday. Wilcox ranks second on the team in kills (232) and digs (109), and is third in aces (23).
CSUN has won three of its last four, splitting the series with UC Irvine in a pair of five-set matches, then topping UCSD twice last week, 3-0 and 3-1. The Matadors are led by 6-4 senior hitter Dimitar Kalchev, a first-team all-conference pick who leads the team in kills (333) and is the program’s career lead in aces with 198 — 46 coming this season.
CSUN also had two named to the all-freshman team in 6-4 setter Taylor Ittner and 6-5 middle Daniel Wetter.
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