Tied.  Pepperdine by one. Tied.  Pepperdine by one.  Tied.  Pepperdine by one.  Tied.  Pepperdine by one.  Tied.  Pepperdine by one.  

And so it went, on and on, then on and on again, for the duration of the marathon that was the third and final game of Pepperdine’s massive upset over Long Beach State in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation playoffs Thursday night.  

The heavily favored 49ers carried the swagger and the #1 seed, but the #5 Waves wielded the big stick and trampled their way to victory in the semifinal game, 30-27, 30-22, 43-41.

Down two games to none and facing elimination, watching their chances at a conference championship dwindle and fade, the 49ers pushed the third game as far as they could before Dean Bittner’s kill attempt was blocked and Pepperdine danced in the Pyramid.  The Waves will advance to the MPSF finals, where they will face the winner between BYU and CS Northridge for an automatic bid into the four-team NCAA Championships.

The 49ers, on the other hand, look to be in good position to earn a berth despite Thursday’s upset loss.  After ending the regular season as the nation’s #2 team, and with a strength of schedule unmatched, they will most likely be awarded the only at-large bid available to enter the field of four.

“We have the best case.  I feel confident we’ll be playing in Irvine next weekend,” head coach Alan Knipe said of his team’s chances to receive an NCAA Championship invitation.

The 49ers wouldn’t be having to rely on an at-large bid had they performed as expected, beating Pepperdine and then winning Saturday’s game to earn an automatic bid.  But uncharacteristically porous defense and plaguing service errors – 32 in three games – put Long Beach State behind early in the contest.  It was strange to see the 49ers continuously put balls into the net on serves, something they have avoided all season.

“We missed a lot of serves tonight,” said Knipe.  “It’s one of those tough things to explain because we led the conference in service aces.

Thursday, though, it would give the 49ers no such advantage.

”We’re used to [our serving] causing problems for them,” said senior Paul Lotman, who notched 13 kills but 7 service errors.  The star outside hitter moved into second place all-time on Long Beach’s service aces list this season and shattered the single season record, yet did not record one against Pepperdine.  

“Tonight we caused our own problems,” he said.

They caused their own problems time and time again, falling behind early in each of the three games and failing to capitalize on Pepperdine errors.  When the Beach would score a crucial point and seem to gain the momentum, they would concede a point.  Long Beach could not afford to trade points with the Waves, especially facing defeat.  The best way to erase a deficit is to go on a streak, but it’s tough to get a streak going when you can’t score consecutive points.

Pepperdine certainly gave Long Beach opportunities, tallying 20 service errors of their own.

“I don’t think it was necessarily a perfectly played match, but it was hard played,” said Waves head coach Marv Dunphy.  “In the first couple of games, [Long Beach] didn’t play as well as they’re capable of playing.”

Despite being blocked on the game-ending point, sophomore Bittner was by far the 49ers’ most effective player, notching 17 kills and a .323 hitting percentage.  

“Bittner was on fire,” Dunphy said.  “There was a stretch there where we just couldn’t stop him.”

In the end, though, it came down to the 49ers stopping themselves.

Here is a copy of my notes, solely from Game 3: