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Long Beach State, seeded second in the tournament, improved to 28-6 overall. Penn State, seeded third in the tournament, ended its season at 23-7.
Long Beach State defeated Penn State 3-0 in the 1991 NCAA Tournament semifinals in the only other previous NCAA postseason match between the schools. The 49ers went on to win the national title that season, which coincidentally was also hosted by the University of Hawai’i.
LBSU used a 7-2 run after trailing 15-13 to gain the upper hand early with a 30-26 game one victory. The 49ers won game two 30-26 after scoring four of the last five points after the Nittany Lions closed the gap to 26-25. The Beach withstood a late Penn State rally to win game three.
Duncan Budinger produced 11 kills and seven blocks for the Beach with a match-high .667 attack percentage. Scott Touzinsky added 13 kills for LBSU. Jeff Wootton turned in nine kills and tied with Nathan Hagstrom for a team-high six digs. The 49ers hit .326 as a team and turned in 11 team blocks to hold the Nittany Lions to a .234 attack percentage. Tyler Hildebrand ran the Beach offense with 41 assists.
Keith Kowal paced Penn State with a match-high 15 kills and hit at a .545 clip. Kevin Wentzel added nine kills for the Nittany Lions, while Matt Proper was credited with eight kills. Nathan Meerstein contributed seven kills and five blocks in the loss.
Long Beach State recovered from an early 3-1 deficit in game one with a 4-0 run capped by a Nathan Hagstrom ace. Penn State continued to put pressure on the 49ers and led 15-13 at the mid-way point of game one. However, Long Beach State scored seven of the next nine points to take a 20-17 advantage. The 49ers increased the margin to as many as five points at 28-23 before concluding with the 30-26 game one victory. Touzinsky recorded eight kills in game one as the Beach hit .542 as a team. Kowal led Penn State in the first game with six kills as the Nittany Lions hit .406 as a team.
Penn State rolled out to a 4-1 advantage in game two as Kowal and Meerstein produced kills around two Touzinsky hitting errors. The Nittany Lions increased the advantage to four points at 7-3 with Meerstein involved in two team blocks. LBSU rebounded with a three-point spurt keyed by back-to-back tandem blocks from Hagstrom and Lee. Penn State upped its lead to 10-7 as Kowal tallied a block assist and kill. The Beach tied the match at 10-all on a Nittany Lion and two 49er blocks involving Budinger. LBSU broke a 13-13 tie as Budinger produced a kill and ace in a 3-0 mini-run. Penn State closed to within one at 18-17 following a Matt Proper kill and hitting error by the 49ers. Long Beach State took a 22-19 advantage following a Budinger kill and ace by Wootton. The teams traded two-point runs as the Nittany Lions closed to within 26-25 prompting Long Beach State to call a timeout. The 49ers responded out of the timeout by closing the match on a 4-1 run with two kills from Wootton. The Beach used its front-line defense to net seven team blocks in the second game and limit Penn State to a .067 attack percentage. Touzinsky and Budinger each scored four kills for the 49ers, while Kowal produced five kills in the second game for Penn State. The Nittany Lions managed four team blocks in the second game and held LBSU to a .121 hitting percentage.
Penn State built a 7-3 lead to start game three with two points on a kill and block from Proper and three other points coming on 49er service errors. Budinger led Long Beach State back into the lead, taking part in three consecutive points for an 8-7 advantage. The 49ers broke a 9-all tie with a 7-1 run started by a Budinger kill and ace. Penn State called timeout trailing 16-10. The Nittany Lions cut a seven-point deficit back to four at 20-16 as Kowal, Proper and Aaron Smith all connected for kills. Long Beach State handled the Penn State rally with 4-0 run of its own, which included two team blocks. The 49ers increased their margin to 26-17 and needed to withstand a 6-1 run by the Nittany Lions cutting the gap to 27-23. Dan O’Dell tallied back-to-back aces in the run. Penn State came within three at 28-25, but could not make the full come back losing 30-26.
Long Beach State Head Coach Alan Knipe will attempt to become the third person to win a NCAA National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship both as a player and as a coach. Knipe won the title as a player in 1991. Rod Wilde (1978 as a player, 1986 as a coach) and Bob Yoder (1977, 1988) both have accomplished the rare feat.
Long Beach State earned its sixth NCAA National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship appearance as the at-large team in 2004. Long Beach State had not appeared in a NCAA Tournament match since 1999.
Penn State claimed its 16th Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association championship to earn the league’s automatic bid into the NCAA National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship.
The 2004 NCAA National Collegiate Men’s Volleyball Championship represents the 10-year anniversary for Penn State winning its only title. The Nittany Lions have earned 19 NCAA Tournament berths, including spots in the last six championships.
Penn State’s middle blocking duo of Keith Kowal and Nate Meerstein both surpassed the previous single season attack percentage set by Kowal in 2003. Kowal finished the 2004 season attacking at a .573 clip. If not for Kowal’s exploits this season, Meerstein would be in line to break the record. Meerstein ends the season with a .514 attack percentage. The two players ranked number one and number two in the NCAA Division I-II national statistics for attack percentage in 2004.
Notes
Long Beach State placed three athletes on the AVCA Division I-II Men’s All-America Team. Senior right side/opposite hitter Scott Touzinsky, senior middle blocker David Lee and sophomore setter Tyler Hildebrand earned their first AVCA All-America honors in 2004.
Long Beach State boasts two players with 1,000-career kills. Scott Touzinsky ranks fifth all-time at the school with 1,625 kills, which falls 16 kills shy of fourth-place David McKienzie. Touzinsky became just the third player in NCAA Division I-II to score 40 or more kills in an all rally-scoring match when he posted 40 versus BYU on Jan. 30. Jeff Wootton has tallied 1,186-career kills for ninth spot in the 49er record book.
Long Beach State has been ranked second in the USA Today/AVCA Division I-II Men’s Coaches Top 15 Poll for the past eight weeks. The 49ers have not been ranked lower than sixth all season.
Penn State placed one player on each of the AVCA Division I-II Men’s All-America Teams. Junior middle blocker Keith Kowal was tabbed a first-team selection, while senior libero Ricky Mattei was chosen to the second team.
Penn State ranks seventh for the fourth straight week in the USA Today/AVCA Division I-II Men’s Coaches Top 15 Poll. The Nittany Lions started the season ranked seventh, but fell as low as 12th in three ranking periods in 2004.
Only three of Penn State’s seven starters saw significant playing time in last season’s NCAA Tournament semifinal match. Ricky Mattei recorded 16 digs as the team’s libero, while then-freshman Dan O’Dell shared time setting in the team’s loss to BYU. Middle blocker Keith Kowal tallied 11 kills and three blocks in the loss to BYU. Nate Meerstein saw action in one game but recorded no stats from his middle blocker position as a red-shirt freshman.
Jen Armson
Assistant Sports Information Director
Penn State University
101 D Bryce Jordan Center -- University Park, Pa. 16802
Phone: 814/865-1757 -- Fax: 814/863-3165
Email: jma19@...
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