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Check out the men’s volleyball NCAA Tournament finals to follow today and how to follow the match live.
No. 1 seed UCLA (25-5, 11-1 MPSF) vs. No. 2 seed Long Beach State (27-2, 9-1 Big West)
Match vitals: 2 p.m. in Long Beach, California
Follow live: Live stats, Live video, TV (ESPN), OTB prematch show
Season series: Tied at 1-1
Last meeting: UCLA defeated Long Beach State in four games to split the home-and-home series.
Last NCAA Tournament meeting: UCLA defeated Long Beach State in the NCAA Tournament semifinals last season.
All-time series: UCLA leads 70-42
How they got here: UCLA after receiving an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament swept Fort Valley State in the quarterfinals and beat UC Irvine in five games in the semifinals. Long Beach State after winning the Big West championship to earn an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament swept Belmont Abbey in the quarterfinals and beat Grand Canyon in five games in the semifinals.
NCAA Tournament record: UCLA (59-10); Long Beach State (21-11)
NCAA Tournament appearances: UCLA (1970, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1989, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2016, 2018, 2022, 2023, 2024); Long Beach State (1970, 1973, 1990, 1991, 1999, 2004, 2008, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024)
NCAA Tournament titles: UCLA (1970, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1989, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2006, 2023); Long Beach State (1991, 2018, 2019)
Previous NCAA Tournament finals meetings: 1970 (UCLA def. Long Beach State 15-7, 15-4, 15-8); 2018 (Long Beach State def. UCLA 25-19, 23-25, 20-25, 26-24, 15-12)
UCLA player accolades this season: Merrick McHenry (MPSF Player of the Year, First-Team All-American, First-Team All-MPSF); Andrew Rowan (First-Team All-American, First-Team All-MPSF); Ethan Champlin (First-Team All-American, First-Team All-MPSF); Grant Sloane (All-American Honorable Mention, Second-Team All-MPSF); Cooper Robinson (All-American Honorable Mention, Second-Team All-MPSF)
Long Beach State player accolades this season: Mason Briggs (Co-National Defensive Player of the Year, First-Team All-American, First-Team All-Big West); Clark Godbold (All-American Honorable Mention); Aidan Knipe (Second-Team All-American, First-Team All-Big West); Sotiris Siapanis (First-Team All-American, First-Team All-Big West); Simon Torwie (Co-National Defensive Player of the Year, First-Team All-American, First-Team All-Big West); Lazar Bouchkov (Big West All-Freshman Team); Skyler Varga (All-American Honorable Mention, All-Big West Honorable Mention)
What to know: It’s starting to become an annual fixture of the NCAA Tournament. Long Beach State and UCLA for the third consecutive year will face each other in the NCAA Tournament. This time, though, it will be for the national championship. UCLA enters the finals leading the nation with a .375 attack percentage, including hitting .404 in a five-game semifinals victory against UC Irvine on Thursday. All-American setter Andrew Rowan also has guided the offense to more than a .400 attack percentage three times this postseason and seven times in the last 10 matches. Rowan said during the prematch news conference Friday that the way UCLA runs its offense won’t change even when going up against the Long Beach State block and middle attacker Simon Torwie. Torwie leads the nation with a 1.37 blocks per game average and has more than five blocks in all but one of The Beach’s four postseason matches. The Co-National Defensive Player of the Year also had a season-high nine blocks as Long Beach State rallied from a two-game deficit to beat Grand Canyon in the semifinals on Thursday. Long Beach State enters the finals holding opponents to a nation-best .190 attack percentage and leads the nation averaging 3.14 blocks per game. UCLA also could be without opposite Grant Sloane for the second consecutive match. Coach John Speraw said Friday that Sloane will be a match-time decision after the All-MPSF selection suffered a lower-leg injury during warmups of the semifinals. Sloane came off the bench and had a match-high 16 kills on a .583 attack percentage in a four-game victory against Long Beach State in February.