BYU Defeats Long Beach for Men’s Volleyball Title

Top-seeded Brigham Young defeated second-seeded Long Beach State in four games to win the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation men’s volleyball championship Saturday night in front of 3,175 in Provo, Utah.

The 49ers (27-6) won the first game, 30-27, but the Cougars came back to win 32-30, 30-28, 30-24. Joe Hillman had 19 kills to lead the Cougars (27-4), who advance to the NCAA Division I tournament starting Thursday in Honolulu.

It was the third time the teams have met in the MPSF playoffs and the first time they met in the championship match.

It also was the 23rd meeting overall between the two teams, with Long Beach State leading, 12-11 -- the teams have split 10 matches in Provo. BYU played the 49ers twice this season at the Pyramid, where the Cougars won two five-game matches.

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Despite a late rally, the Long Beach State women’s water polo team lost to top-ranked USC, 8-5, in the semifinals of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament at the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos.

The Trojans will play Stanford today for the title. Katie Hansen’s man-advantage goal with 1:01 left in the game gave the Cardinal a 3-2 victory over UCLA in the second semifinal game. The Bruins had two shots in the final 30 seconds, but both missed the net.

USC took a 6-2 lead over Long Beach on Brittany Hayes’ second goal of the game at 5:27.

Angelica Garcia scored two goals for the 49ers, who will play in the third-place game against UCLA. Garcia’s second goal came at 4:27 in the fourth and Robyn Gordin scored with 3:10 left to cut the deficit to 6-4.

But Jena Wenger scored at 2:09 and Marna Mayer converted a four-meter goal at 1:10 to give the Trojans an 8-4 lead.