The volleyball Gods teased with signs that pointed to a certain 49er win.  

The team received an at-large invitation in the final field of four to compete for a national title; the game was held at UC Irvine – practically a 49er home game; Captain Paul Lotman had just been named co-National Player of the Year; the 49ers faced up against Pepperdine, who had just swept them in the Pyramid seven days earlier, and sought payback; Pepperdine had twice swept CSULB earlier in the season, and it’s tough to beat any team three times.

But even with all of these omens and a week’s worth of preparation, the 49ers were defeated by the Waves, again in three games by a score of 30-26, 30-21, 30-26.  Pepperdine now moves on to the NCAA National Championship against Penn State on Saturday.

“I thought in Game 1 we did some good things that just didn’t go our way,” head coach Alan Knipe said after the disappointing loss.  “This group had a tremendous season that far exceeded a lot of people’s expectations for where we’d be right now, other than maybe our own.”

The 49ers were adamant all year that this team was capable of winning a national championship, and proved it by plowing through the regular season.  Along the way, they pushed #1 Penn State to five games and defeated Ohio State in back-to-back games in Columbus.  Sophomores Dan Alexander and Dean Bittner were named First Team All-Americans along with Lotman, while setter Mike Klipsch was named Freshman of the Year.  
Still, anything short of a national championship is not what this team had in mind.

”I don’t regret anything.  I’d do it all over again,” Lotman said after the game.  “I’m glad that I came to Long Beach and I love playing for Alan and the coaching staff.  I think we had the best coaching staff in the nation.  I’m kind of sad that we didn’t win the whole thing.  But I wouldn’t take anything back.”

Lotman certainly didn’t hold anything back on Thursday night, attempting to will his team to victory with ferocious spikes and inspiring hustle.  The Waves attacked the National Player of the Year by serving directly at him, and anticipated his every kill attempt by sending two or three defenders to block the net.  

“I was really frustrated,” he said.  “Every time I got set, I just felt like I saw a wall in front of me.”

Lotman led the team with 14 kills but hit at just a .194 clip.  Dean Bittner added 12 kills but hit a similarly uncharacteristic .120 percentage.  Pepperdine’s 10 blocks consistently thwarted or diverted opportunity after opportunity for the 49ers.

But at least this game was decided at the net – an exhibition of two of the nation’s best teams doing what they do best – and not at the service line, as last week’s Pepperdine win over Long Beach was.  The 49ers repeatedly shot themselves in the foot with 32 service errors in that match, eliminating any chance they had to get themselves back into the game.  On Thursday, Long Beach was more crisp at the service line and had 15 errors to Pepperdine’s 14.  This game would not be decided by carelessness and miscues, but by a clever defensive scheme to shut down Long Beach’s high-powered scorers.

“All year long, Long Beach State had some great moments,” said Pepperdine head coach Marv Dunphy.  “But we just got hot in their place, and we hit the court tonight.”

“They were cheating [the defense towards Lotman] and had a pretty good idea when we were setting up Paul,” Knipe said.  “There are not a lot of secrets.  When you get to a game like this, you’re gonna dance with the one you brought and we were going to go to Paul.”

Knipe and the rest of the 49ers now face Life Without Lotman, which is filled with a lot of juniors and sophomores.  But next year’s team will be extremely talented and returns key players at every position.  At this point, all there is to do is look back and reflect on the magical ride that we witnessed this season.

It’s just too bad the ride had to end a little early.