'Awesome' Sander leads No. 1 BYU volleyball by Long Beach, will face Ohio St. in final


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In the end, top-ranked BYU’s three-pronged attack of Ben Patch, Brenden Sander and Jake Langlois proved too much for a feisty, fourth-ranked Long Beach State.

Sander had 14 kills, Patch added 13 and Langlois supplied eight kills and three aces as No. 1 BYU took a 25-21, 23-25, 25-19, 25-18 win over the No. 4 49ers in the semifinals of the NCAA men’s volleyball tournament in University Park, Pennsylvania.

“We came out really confident and wanted this game really bad," Sander told reporters after the match. "It think Leo set the ball very well, got our middles involved, and Jake also attacked the ball really well. It was just a whole team effort in that we all got out there and played really hard.”

Leo Durkin dished out 42 assists for the Cougars (27-3), who advanced to their first national championship match since 2013. BYU will face third-seeded Ohio State at 6 p.m. MT Saturday.

But dishing it out was easy with hitters like Sander, who hit at a stunning .583 clip without a single hitting error.

BYU celebrates a point in the second set. The BYU Men's Volleyball defeated Long Beach State 3-1 in the Semi-Final Match of the NCAA Volleyball Championships, hosted by Penn State in University Park, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jaren Wilkey/BYU) © BYU PHOTO 2016 All Rights Reserved
BYU celebrates a point in the second set. The BYU Men's Volleyball defeated Long Beach State 3-1 in the Semi-Final Match of the NCAA Volleyball Championships, hosted by Penn State in University Park, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jaren Wilkey/BYU) © BYU PHOTO 2016 All Rights Reserved

“He was awesome," Durkin said of Sander. "As a setter, you’re alway looking for the hot hand out there, and I think there was a point where he was hitting .1000.

"Long Beach is a great defensive team, really scrappy, and we always expect that. Brenden did a great job of finding space.”

TJ DeFalco led Long Beach (25-8) with 23 kills, two assists and eight digs, and Kyle Ensing added 10 kills. Josh Tania supplied 45 assists for the 49ers, who defeated Erskine College in the tournament’s play-in round Tuesday.

Long Beach State took a 6-5 lead briefly in the final set, but a line-drive, out-of-bounds serve and Langlois’ kill gave the lead right back to BYU, 8-6.

A 4-1 run fueled by Sander’s kill gave BYU a match-high 17-10 lead in the fourth set as the Cougars were dialed in at the service line. BYU served six aces with just 10 errors to 19 errors from Long Beach State.

“We want to make our passers have to move and take them out of their system," Durkin said. "We wanted to get players to move out of places. I’m not necessarily looking for aces, but just putting them in a difficult position.”

Sander gave BYU a 23-16 lead, and the Cougars finished the match on Patch’s spike down the right sideline to take the final set 25-18 and send BYU to its first national championship match since 2013 Saturday against the winner of No. 2 UCLA and No. 3 Ohio State.

BYU and Long Beach went back and forth early in the opening set until Patch gave the Cougars the first two-point lead of the match at 8-6 in the opening set. But three-straight kills by freshman star DeFalco gave the 49ers a 9-8 advantage. DeFalco finished the first set with seven kills, and added seven more in the second set, but BYU held him to one set in the third set to take control of the match.

“I don’t know if we neutralized him too well. But our approach has been to not shy away from him, but just go after him," Jarman said of DeFalco. "We know he’s going to get set, put up numbers, but in this game, one guy can’t win a match. Even if he’s having a good night, we can still win. We didn’t panic.”

Sander served BYU’s second ace of the night to give BYU an early 4-1 advantage in the third set, and Price Jarman kept things rolling with a kill to put BYU up 17-12. Langlois’ ace gave BYU a 2-1 advantage with a 25-19 third-set win.

After a rough opening set, Langlois came on to burn the 49ers with timely hitting and even more timely serving.

“Jake’s been an integral part of our success this year," BYU coach Shawn Olmstead said. "I thought he contributed a ton and in a lot of ways that don’t always stand out. But he’s a huge part of what we’re doing.

“I think all the guys are comfortable with the approach there. His physical play is going to come around, and that’s exactly what happened.”

OHIO STATE 3, UCLA 2 — At University Park, Pa., Miles Johnson put down 20 kills with just three errors, and Nicolas Szerszen added 15 kills and five aces — including with the match-winning serve — to help the Buckeyes advance to the national championship, 22-25, 25-22, 25-21, 20-25, 18-16 over No. 2 UCLA.

Christy Blough supplied 43 assists, two kills and three digs for Ohio State (30-2), which will play BYU in Saturday’s final at 6 p.m. MT on ESPN2.

The Buckeyes took a 13-11 lead in the fifth set, but UCLA (25-7) rallied for three-straight points to set up match point, 14-13 before Christy Blough tied the match to send the decisive set into extra points.

Jake Arnitz led UCLA with 18 kills, and JT Hatch supplied 13 kills and 12 digs. Micah Ma’a had 29 assists, eight kills, nine digs and three blocks for the Bruins, who got 11 kills each from Oliver Martin and Mitch Stahl.

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