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Long Beach State assistant coach Nick McRae after watching Alex Kandev deliver a cross-court kill in the third game walked towards the court, flexing and pointing to his arm in praise.
The freshman’s kill was that emphatic to warrant that type of reaction from one of the top assistant coaches in the nation. Almost every kill from Kandev throughout the match felt like a display of his strength at the net.
Kandev finished with a match-high 19 kills on a .533 attack percentage as the No. 1 seed Long Beach State defeated the No. 5 seed Pepperdine 20-25, 25-23, 25-19, 25-23 in the NCAA Tournament semifinals on Saturday in Columbus, Ohio.
Kandev with Long Beach State facing a one-game deficit led all players with nine kills in the second game. In addition, the outside attacker committed one attack error in the final two games and had five kills in the final game to help secure the comeback win.
Kandev was one of three Long Beach State pin-hitters to have double-digit kills against Pepperdine.
Opposite Nato Dickinson had 19 kills on a .485 attack percentage, including the match-winning kill to prevent the fourth game going into overtime. Outside attacker Skyler Varga added 11 kills and hit .381.
Setter Moni Nikolov guided the Long Beach State offense to out-hit Pepperdine .482 to .421. The Beach in the final two games had a combined two attack errors and hit more than .500 in each of the games.
Along with the offensive performance, Nikolov led all players with five aces.
Nikolov entered the match having already set the NCAA single-season ace record and surpassed the 100 ace milestone in the victory.
Outside attacker Ilay Haver in the loss led the Waves with 14 kills on a .545 attack percentage. Opposite Cole Hartke and outside attacker Ryan Barnett each also had 13 kills and hit more than .300.
This was one of the first NCAA Tournament matches during the 25-point rally scoring era that both teams hit more than .400.
Dickinson led all players with eight kills in the fourth game and had the final two kills for the Beach to help the team secure a spot in the finals for the second straight year.
Long Beach State in the third game did not commit an attack error and hit a match-best .720 to take a one-game lead. In addition, Nikolov had back-to-back aces as part of a 5-1 run to take a four-point lead early in the game.
Barnett had an ace to tie the second game at 16-16. The outside attacker following a timeout then had a serving forcing the Beach out of system resulting in a Waves point and on the next play had a back-row kill to give Pepperdine a two-point lead.
Long Beach, though, responded and tied the game on a Nikolov ace. Dickinson and Kandev also had kills on back-to-back plays late in the game to help the Beach extend a lead that it would not relinquish.
Pepperdine committed two attack errors and hit a .478 in its opening-game win.
The Waves lead 17-16 before going on a 5-1 run that featured back-to-back kills from Haver. Haver finished the game leading all players with five kills.
Long Beach State with this victory will advance to the NCAA Tournament finals and play the winner of the other semifinal match between the No. 2 seed Hawai’i and the No. 3 seed UCLA on Saturday.
This is the fifth time in the last eight years that the Beach has reached the NCAA Tournament finals.
Long Beach won back-to-back national championships in 2018 and 2019 and then lost to Hawai’i in the 2022 finals and UCLA in the 2024 finals.