Trojans Beat 49ers for Title : Volleyball: USC upsets top-ranked CS Long Beach in four games behind Bryan Ivie.

After losing to Cal State Long Beach three times during the season, USC defeated the 49ers, 15-10, 12-15, 15-4, 15-6, Saturday night to win its fourth NCAA men’s volleyball championship and second in three years.

Behind the play of tournament most valuable player Bryan Ivie, who led USC with 35 kills, the Trojans (25-5) dominated the top-seeded 49ers (28-7) at George Mason University.

“I thought coming in that the advantage was to us,” USC Coach Jim McLaughlin said. “We were 0-3 against them, but they were all close.”

The Trojans’ victory continued Southern California’s domination of the national title as USC, UCLA, Pepperdine and San Diego State are the only schools to win championships since the NCAA began sponsoring men’s volleyball in 1970.

“It is awful difficult to beat that good a team four times in a year,” Long Beach Coach Ray Ratelle said. “We picked the wrong night to have a bad match. I give credit to SC, though. We couldn’t stop their offense. They passed well all night and we were never able to get our offense going. You can’t run an offense from the 10-foot line.”

The 6-foot-7 Ivie played last summer for the U.S. National team. But he sprained an ankle and did not play in the Trojans’ Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. tournament loss to Long Beach last week.

“Ivie is a motivating source for them,” Ratelle said. “But I thought they all played great. USC had a great match tonight and we knew that we had to play our best to win and we didn’t.”

Three other Trojans made the six-man all-tournament team: middle blocker Kevin Shepard, who had 19 kills and 11 digs; setter Dan Greenbaum, who had 83 assists, and Jason Perkins.

“I thought that we blocked better and that they made more errors,” McLaughlin said. “Long Beach wasn’t getting the ball to the hitter and wasn’t connecting as much, so we were able to read them.

“I just wanted to keep in a good side-out rhythm and not press.”

In the third-place match, Ball State defeated Rutgers Newark, 15-13, 15-4, 7-15, 15-6.