It didn’t matter for Isaiah Fedd that he led all players in kills during an NCAA Tournament match.
It also didn’t matter that against the top-ranked team in the nation he made some of the most electric plays of the match.
Fedd looking at the box score during the postmatch news conference simply said that he could have done more.
It’s the type of attitude Fort Valley State has come to expect for a player who during the offseason did additional workouts after the team completed their own group workout. It’s the embodiment, even in a loss, of the championship culture coach Larry Wrather is building at the Division II historically black university.
Fedd finished with a match-high 14 kills on a .357 attack percentage as the No. 8 seed Fort Valley State lost to the No. 1 seed Long Beach State 25-21, 25-16, 25-16 in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals on Thursday in Columbus, Ohio.
Fedd, the 2025 SIAC Player of the Year, opened the match with eight kills and zero errors in the first game. In addition, the outside attacker hit .727 in the first game before being held to less than a .200 attack percentage in each of the final two games.
Along with the offensive performance, Feed had a team-high 19 service receptions and a 90.5 percent successful passing rating. Among those receptions included multiple in-system passes off of Long Beach State freshman All-American setter Moni Nikolov – who set the NCAA single-season record with aces.
Nikolov finished with a match-high three aces and guided the offense to out-hit Fort Valley State .367 to .129.
Outside attacker Nato Dickinson led Long Beach State with 12 kills on a .451 attack percentage. Middle attacker Ben Braun added nine kills on a team-best .800 attack percentage.
Nikolov had eight kills and led Long Beach State with six kills in the opening game.
The setter defensively contributed a match-high eight digs and was one of three Beach players with at least five digs. Libero Kellen Larson contributed seven digs, while Dickinson had five digs.
Larson also helped limit Fort Valley State to zero aces.
Long Beach State after hitting .263 in the opening game had at least a .400 attack percentage each of the final two games.
Fort Valley State and Long Beach State were tied at 16-16 in the opening game before the Beach went on a 6-0 run. The Wildcats also fought off three game-points before Long Beach State secured the win with a Dickinson kill on a lengthy rally.
Long Beach State with this victory will advance to play the semifinals and will play the winner of the quarterfinal match between the No. 4 seed Loyola and the No. 5 seed Pepperdine.
Fort Valley State entered the NCAA Tournament on a 22-day layoff after winning the SIAC Tournament to earn the conference’s automatic bid.
The Wildcats went undefeated in SIAC play and dropped two sets the entire season en route to repeating as conference champions.