UCLA overpowers Long Beach State in NCAA men’s volleyball semifinals

FAIRFAX, Virginia — With the best four men’s volleyball teams in the NCAA men’ national semifinals, many believed there would be a lot of tightly contested, five-set matches before a national champion was crowned.

Someone forgot to send the memo to UCLA.

With near flawless passing and a monster matches from Ido David and Ethan Champlin, MPSF-champion UCLA (30-2) swept the Big West’s Long Beach State 25-15, 25-14, 25-19  in the first semifinal Tuesday at George Mason’s EagleBank Arena.

The Bruins will play for the National Collegiate Men’s Championship on Saturday against the winner of the second semifinal between Hawai’i and Penn State.

David finished with 17 kills, and Champlin had 14.

Long Beach, which lost both its regular-season matches to the Bruins, finished 21-5.

In the first set, David had seven kills as the Bruins won easily. Champlin notched six kills and an ace. Alex Knight added three kills and two aces.

And UCLA showed the nation’s top blocking team that it wasn’t too shabby either, amassing seven blocks to Long Beach’s five. The Bruins also were efficient in serve receive, as Long Beach failed to register an ace.

The second set also was dominated by the Bruins, who hit .540 through the first two sets while registering five aces to Long Beach’s one. Long Beach contributed to its own troubles in the second set, committing a variety of errors (eight in all). David ran his kill total to 10, and Champion was up to nine.

UCLA middle blocker Merrick McHenry, quiet in the first set, had four kills and a block in the second set.

UCLA led both sets nearly all the way through: from 3-2 in the first and 2-1 in the second.

Long Beach showed signs of life in the third set, going point-for-point with the Bruins until UCLA freshman setter Andrew Rowan had three straight kills — two on dumps and one on a wind-up second ball from Champlin — to give UCLA a 14-10 lead.

Champlin followed with another kill, and the Bruins were on their way. Even coach John Speraw was gesturing and raising his arms at each UCLA point late in the third set.

Speraw, who won three national titles as coach at UC Irvine, is seeking his first at his alma mater, where he won two national championships as a player.