Fri May 16, 2008
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Second-Seeded Pepperdine Sweeps No. 3 Long Beach State, 3-0 in Final Four ShowdownMay 2, 2008 IRVINE, Calif. - Second-seeded Pepperdine won the battle of Southern California rivals at the NCAA Men's Volleyball Championships on Thursday evening, taking a 3-0 (30-26, 30-21, 30-26) victory over third-seeded Long Beach State in a Final Four showdown at UC Irvine's Bren Events Center. The Waves (17-10) will face top-seeded Penn State (29-1) on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. in the national championship match. The Nittany Lions were 3-1 winners over fourth-seeded Ohio State in the other national semifinal on Thursday. Pepperdine's Cory Riecks paced the Waves in game one, throwing in a game-high six kills in what turned out to be a competitive back-and-forth contest between the two familiar foes. Pepperdine, which never trailed in the game, moved out to a 29-26 lead off a kill by outside hitter J.D. Schleppenbach. The Waves would take the game on the very next point following a hitting error by Long Beach State's Paul Lotman. Pepperdine hit .379 for the game, compared to just .188 for the 49ers. Pepperdine moved out to an early 5-1 lead in game two, however Long Beach State (23-7) came right back, taking the next four points to tie it at 5-5. That was as close as the 49ers would get, however, as before they knew it Pepperdine had taken a 23-16 lead. A block by Schleppenbach followed by an attack error by the 49ers put the Waves up 25-16. Schleppenbach, who had five kills in game two alone, ended the game with his ninth kill of the match to give the Waves a 30-21 win. Game three provided much of the same, as Long Beach State never had an answer for Pepperdine's potent attack. Up 29-26, the Waves took the match following a penetrating serve by Paul Carroll that was dug up back over the net. Riecks pounced on it, ending the match on a single swing to send Pepperdine to its first NCAA title match since 2005. Long Beach State was paced by Lotman, who had a team-high 14 kills. Carroll and Schleppenbach were dominant for the Waves, finishing with 15 and 14 kills respectively. Game Notes: Pepperdine upped its record to 3-1 against Long Beach State
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